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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24117046">Backstabbing and birthdays</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winxhelina/pseuds/Winxhelina'>Winxhelina</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime &amp; Manga)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Angst and Humor, Birthday Party, Brotherly Affection, Brotherly Love, Flashbacks, Fluff, Games, Gen, Hospitalization, Kaiba does his best at being a good brother, Misunderstandings, Nightmares, Protective Kaiba, Sleepovers, Social Workers, Stabbing, There's some talking about sex, protective Mokuba</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 15:00:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>38,619</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24117046</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winxhelina/pseuds/Winxhelina</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"Call a medic!" one of his men was yelling. </p><p>"A medic? What happened?"</p><p>"Nothing very interesting to worry about," Kaiba assured, smiling thinly. In hindsight it was probably the smile, which made Mokuba realize something was very wrong and then a moment later notice a trail of blood slowly oozing out of his brother. </p><p>Anzu was the quickest to catch on to the fact that Kaiba was trying to hide the fact that he had been stabbed from his brother and so she too tried to shield him from the sight and pulled him near her, but all it accomplished was that Mokuba was now full on panicking, screaming for his brother, who was right there and finding that the edges of his vision were getting blurry and that it was rather a lot harder to downplay being stabbed than he had thought.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kaiba Mokuba &amp; Kaiba Seto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>74</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Stabbing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Wrote this while still watching the series. (Rewatching, I suppose technically as I watched the 4kids version VOd into Estonian years ago, but that wasn't even a proper watch.) I don't normally wrote fanfiction until I have watched all there is to watch, but this is in my head and it won't go away so I guess I'm doing this.</p><p>Not sure where in the series this should be set, but not sure it matters either. Somewhere later along the line, I suppose.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was the sort of tournament, where Kaiba spent most his time (not so) discreetly looking at company e-mails. He had to occasionally hold tournaments for beginners too and as he was the host he was generally expected to stick around for a bit. Not that he always did. What Yugi and his friends were doing watching this God awful show of absolute incompetence in the row behind him (Mokuba had gotten them nice seats and Kaiba hadn't argued) was beyond him. Did they have nothing to do on their Sunday afternoons? Well, Kaiba supposed it had something to do with Anzu Masaki being in the next block. Yugi had talked her into  joining. Just for a bit of good fun, according to Mokuba. Not that Kaiba cared. At all. Still, he supposed he might at least stay until that duel was over. Surely, she had to be a better duelist that any of the ones he hadn't even bothered to look at all morning. </p><p>Even Mokuba, with his eternal enthusiasm and optimism regarding everything, seemed bored out of his mind. He was resting his head on his arms and Seto thought he might just fall asleep any second. </p><p>"Are we still at the girl with the flower and fairy cards, who can't seem to make any strategic moves to save her life?"</p><p>Mokuba hummed in agreement and Seto decided it wasn't worth looking up: "Didn't we have preliminaries for this?"</p><p>"We did," Mokuba said, sounding quite mortified himself. </p><p>"Gods, what where the other duelists like then? Unable to shuffle a deck at all?" After all, they had seen one girl who had dropped all of her opponents cards while trying to shuffle them. </p><p>"What are you doing?" Mokuba asked curiously instead of answering and Kaiba felt him leaning against his shoulder. </p><p>"Just e-mails and work stuff. Boring, but not as boring as this duel."</p><p>"Can I help?"<br/><br/>"I have some fiscal year reports if you really want to go through them,"</p><p>"Okay," Mokuba said with the sort of brightness that kids his age usually reserved for ice cream and gummy bears (not that Mokuba didn't like those, he did, he just apparently also appreciated looking through company documents). </p><p>Kaiba reached under his laptop and produced a slightly warm file. </p><p>He glanced over at the row behind him to see if Yugi and his friends were asleep. His biggest rival, not really doing his part in looking like his rival, smiled at Kaiba, causing him to quickly look away and seem extremely uninterested in him. </p><p>There was an incoming call and Kaiba answered it by pressing a button on his coat.<br/><br/>"Yes?"<br/><br/>"Sir, just thought to let you know there has been a break in at the downstairs vault. We are currently investigating. We're sure it will all be under control. Just letting you know."</p><p>"Very well," he ended the call.</p><p>"What's going on?" Mokuba asked.</p><p>"A break in downstairs."</p><p>"Should I go over?" he asked excitedly, clearly glad for anything going on at this point.</p><p>"No need. There's nothing valuable there. No cards I mean. Just some millions," Kaiba said in a tone that indicated he didn't really get why anyone would steal money, when you could steal <em>cards</em>. Mokuba settled back down, perhaps even a bit disappointed that there was nothing to do. </p><p>His boredom was short lived though, because moments later there was screaming and Kaiba turned around to see a mad-looking kid, holding a knife, making his way over the rows and he was certainly coming to Kaiba's direction. If the murderous look in his eyes wasn't enough to go by it was the fact that he was screaming Kaiba's name that gave it away. Seto grabbed Mokuba and jumped off the small raised balcony area the audience was seated on, onto the floor below. It wasn't a huge jump, he thought and he was usually pretty nimble, but he managed to land badly enough to hurt his ankle, causing his little brother to be the one to call out in worry. </p><p>"I'm fine. It's fine."</p><p>"There's a guy coming at you with a knife!" Mokuba protested.</p><p>"Yeah, I noticed," Kaiba clipped, automatically shielding Mokuba with his body even if he was the target in the first place.  Where was the security team? Did he have to do everything by himself? Oh, right. The break in. Could that have been a diversion?</p><p>The wannabe assassin was still on the balcony area. Jounouchi was trying to stop him and Kaiba was honestly glad to see him fail. He wouldn't want to owe him anything. Plus he could handle the stupid child easily enough himself.</p><p>"Go get security, I've got this," Kaiba told Mokuba, more to get him out of the way than anything, the young man was ranting insanely and waving his knife around so chaotically Kaiba feared he might stab someone else by accident. He was trying to make sense of what the kid was saying and realized that he had beat him in a duel once. Kaiba wasn't quite as bad as Pegasus when it came to humiliating his opponents, but apparently he had said some nasty, although Kaiba was sure, very much true, things about the boy. Some people just couldn't handle losing. Not that Kaiba knew anything about that himself. At all. As far as he was concerned he hadn't overreacted to the few losses he had had in the slightest.</p><p>"Well, you clearly don't have the brains to beat me, but from the looks of it you don't really have the brawn either," he said calmly. The boy charged straight at him. Nothing easier than to dodge. They did this little dance a few times until Kaiba got bored and grabbed the boy by his clothes: "Really, you're going to need a better strategy than that, but I guess strategy was never your strong point, was it?" An empty guess really as he remembered nothing of their supposed duel. <br/><br/>"Oh yeah?" The boy stopped trashing around violently for the moment, looking as if he might give in now. </p><p>"Yeah," Kaiba could see his bodyguards (finally) coming his way and he knew the boy saw them too. He was cornered and seemed all out of fight so Kaiba set him down. The boy looked down on the floor and almost looked ashamed. The moment before the closest guard reached him though, he made a quick unexpected move, which Kaiba did try to dodge, but the distance was too short so he found there was a knife poking out of his side. He made a strange strangled sound and fell onto his knees:"You see, that's better, but you really ought to go for the vital organs like the heart. Stabbing me in the ribs will hardly accomplish anything," Kaiba felt the handle of the blade. Well, it did seem properly in there.</p><p>"Don't pull it out, you idiot!" Anzu yelled, apparently Yugi and his friends were making it to the scene as well. </p><p>The wannabe assassin was now under 3 men, all at least twice his size.</p><p>Mokuba had made it back as well. Kaiba turned to look at him as he heard him call for him, while making sure he pulled his coat over the knife in an effort to hide the fact that it was poking out of him. Mokuba had seen his fair share of traumatizing events. He had held his corpse for God's sake, so surely a stabbing wasn't a big deal, but still Seto didn't want to expose him to even more unnecessary trauma. </p><p>"Call a medic!" one of his men was yelling. </p><p>"A medic? What happened?"</p><p>"Nothing very interesting to worry about," Kaiba assured, smiling thinly. In hindsight it was probably the smile, which made Mokuba realize something was <em>very</em> wrong and then a moment later notice a trail of blood slowly oozing out of his brother. </p><p>Anzu was the quickest to catch on to the fact that Kaiba was trying to hide the fact that he had been stabbed from his brother and so she too tried to shield him from the sight and pulled him near her, but all it accomplished was that Mokuba was now full on panicking, screaming for his brother, who was right there and finding that the edges of his vision were getting blurry and that it was rather a lot harder to downplay being stabbed than he had thought.</p><p>He wasn't sure what exactly happened afterwards. He remembered some screaming and then he had a dream where he played chess, of all things, with Yugi. He woke to the sound of Yugi's voice explaining how a trap card worked and the smell of ... roses? He definitely smelt roses. He let his head fall to the side and was greeted by the sight of his little brother and Yugi teaching Jounouchi's sister Shizuka the rules of Duel Monsters. Why the two of them were doing that, he had no idea. The whole scene looked like a fever dream. The small white table next to him was covered in candy bars and sodas, looking as if someone had raided a vending machine, but there were also laptops about and print outs with company documents. There was a chess board on the floor and flowers on the window sill opposite to him. Also, the way Yugi was explaining the rules to Shizuka was aggravatingly simplified. Surely, she could handle it if he went a little more into depth: "It also has a special effect," he begun, finding that his voice sounded slurred and sleepy. Regardless, everyone's eyes were instantly on him. Mokuba rushed over to his bed, but then seemed conflicted on as to whether throw himself at Kaiba or not touch him at all. He looked very shaken and Kaiba wondered if perhaps the boy stabbing him had actually done a decent job and there was something to worry about. </p><p>His worries were quickly banished as Mokuba explained that the boy had somehow managed to miss all his vital organs and he would be able to go home in a few days, sounding for all the world as if he was trying to comfort Seto, when in reality he was the one who clearly needed comforting and Kaiba was struck by the urge to smile and hug him and softly tell him it was going to be all right, but he also thought that might freak Mokuba out more than it might comfort him, given he never usually did that. So he just put his hand on Mokuba's shoulder and hummed noncommittally:"Well, he was a dreadful duelist, no reason to believe he'd be better at murder."</p><p>"Kaiba-kun, I really think for future reference, when someone tries to stab you, giving them constructive criticism, is not the way to go," Yugi chirped in. </p><p>"Well, he didn't do much better regardless," Kaiba pointed out:"Why are you all here?" he asked in a tone that he hoped conveyed how unnecessary he found their company. </p><p>"We came to keep Mokuba-kun company," Yugi said very brightly. "He was very worried about you so we didn't want to leave him alone."</p><p>Kaiba looked at his little brother, who still looked like he was never going to let him out of his sight ever again and ran his hand through his hair: "I'm fine. Don't worry."</p><p>Shizuka got up, announcing that she was going to call the nurse and then give her brother the good news, which good news Kaiba had no idea, surely him being fine wasn't good news in Katsuya's book.</p><p>"Please tell me she's not inviting him over," Kaiba groaned and Yugi assured him Jounouchi had already been there,  had left and was unlikely to return. Kaiba had a feeling there was more to that story, but he didn't bother asking, because moments later Anzu barged in:"We're back! Oh! Kaiba, you're awake!"</p><p>"Of course I'm awake," Kaiba answered, sounding put off.</p><p>"I thought you were going to get food," Yugi said. </p><p>"Ohh, I did. Honda is helping me with the bags." </p><p>Sure enough, Honda came in shortly after, carrying two very large shopping bags filled to the brim.</p><p>"Are you all planning to stay for a week?" Kaiba asked. </p><p>"No, we were just getting Mokuba something to eat," Anzu said brightly, making Mokuba laugh and admit he didn't think he thought he could eat all that.</p><p>"Well, maybe you'll find something you like. The vending machines here are terrible." Ah. That explained the litany of sodas and candy bars. Kind of.</p><p>"What's the chess board about?"</p><p>"Oh. I was teaching Yugi chess," Mokuba informed: "He's really amazing at it too! Or maybe I'm just not that great."</p><p>"I told you, you could have not told the Other Me the rules. If you let him figure them out while playing, there's a better chance at winning," Yugi helpfully provided, leaving Kaiba to wonder if he could beat Yugi at chess. He almost wanted to voice that challenge, but kept from it. He was still a bit fussy with whatever pain medication they were giving him and maybe not making the best decisions. </p><p>A nurse joined their party, looking appalled at the mess the room had become and then threw everyone out of the room to speak with Kaiba alone. The previous order to leave seemed to include Mokuba, but Kaiba let the nurse know very firmly that Mokuba could stay wherever he wanted.</p><p>The information the nurse gave was similar to the one Mokuba had already provided, but she certainly made the whole thing sound a lot more like a close call, which made it a bit more understandable as to why his brother was looking as shaken as he did. The nurse kept saying he had been incredibly lucky. Still, he'd be home soon enough, getting better. There was not much left to worry over. "We'll discharge you in a few days if all is well and there is no infection, but you should take some time off work and definitely not lift any heavy objects," she said and went on a bit lecturing him. </p><p>As soon as she was out of the room Yugi and his friends poured back inside and Kaiba's hopes that he and his brother were going to be left in peace were shattered rather quickly. </p><p>"How long was I out for?" he asked, no one in particular. </p><p>"Bit over six hours."</p><p>Kaiba looked around:"You managed to do rather a lot it seems in that time."</p><p>"Yes. I wanted to finish up on the papers you gave me, but then Yugi told me I should take it easy, so we played chess and he taught me card tricks and we taught Shizuka Duel Monsters,"  Mokuba narrated. Kaiba just listened quietly. He had the keen feeling his brother was leaving something else out of the story, but he wasn't entirely sure, so he didn't press it. Mokuba seemed much too shaken up. </p><p>"You scared us all quite badly," Anzu said: "I guess I couldn't make my big debut as a duelist anyway," she laughed. </p><p>"They cancelled the tournament?"</p><p>Anzu looked put off:"No. They calmly carried on after the host got stabbed. Of course they cancelled."</p><p>Kaiba shrugged. The motion made him wince and Mokuba looked visibly upset:"Amateurs. We've all seen much worse than a stab wound."</p><p>"Well, I couldn't duel anyway after something like that," Anzu said and she sounded to Kaiba's ear strangely proud of that fact:"Friends are more important than tournaments."</p><p>"And the enemies of your friends too?"</p><p>Anzu rolled her eyes: "Fine, even if we pretend to be enemies after you have saved my life, Mokuba is definitely our friend."</p><p>Kaiba didn't want to argue with that and thankfully he didn't have to because Yugi came up with the most ridiculous statement:"Well, Anzu, maybe you could duel Kaiba, he's pumped up on pain medication, you might win."</p><p>Seto laughed so hard his stomach hurt rather bad.</p><p>"No thanks, I think I'll rather play Mokuba or Yugi even. I won't win, but at least he won't be cruel and mean and unfair to me," Anzu announced.</p><p>"Hey! My brother always plays fair!" Mokuba protested, amusingly not disputing the other two statements. </p><p>"He really doesn't."</p><p>"Yes, he does."</p><p>"Threatening to kill himself if Yugi doesn't surrender is not fair."</p><p>Seto glared daggers at Anzu, who glared back:"What? You don't think I'm not upset about that anymore? I am! It was awful of you and what's even worse that you then proceeded to act as if not murdering you was some kind of weakness!"</p><p>"I don't care if <em>you're </em>upset about it," Kaiba said, but no matter how discreet he tried to be now the damage was done.</p><p>Mokuba was staring at him with big disbelieving eyes:"You did what...?"</p><p>"I didn't really have any other choice," Kaiba said quietly. He wanted to downplay this, but didn't know how. Anzu, who had now realized her blunder, was dead quiet. As were everyone else in the room. </p><p>"When was this?"</p><p>"When Pegasus had you."</p><p>"You... could have just asked Yugi?"</p><p>Kaiba snorted at that. Not the best reaction. In hindsight.</p><p>"He was the one to save us in the end after all!" Not something Kaiba liked to be reminded of, but he could swallow it for the time being. </p><p>"It's fine," Yugi said brightly:"That was a long time ago and I managed to stop Other Me from getting carried away and attacking, so it all worked out," he said, clearly trying to patch things up desperately as that seemed not to be something Kaiba was good at.</p><p>"But had he... you would have...?" Mokuba trailed off. </p><p>"Well yes. I wasn't bluffing if that's what you're asking. I have my pride. Besides, had I failed I wouldn't have been able to save you from Pegasus anyway..."</p><p>"But Yugi would have saved me and then you would have been dead and I would have been all alone!" Mokuba was crying now and Kaiba was really out of his depth. His little brother wasn't a crybaby, but apparently having his brother stabbed and then learning that the same brother had threatened to kill himself in a duel, was where he drew the line. </p><p>"Y-yes, but I didn't think he would go saving you. I thought I was the only one who would."</p><p>"So did I, but how could have you saved me if you were dead?!"</p><p>"I wouldn't have, but I wouldn't have also been able to if I had lost and had not been able to duel Pegasus!"</p><p>Maybe it was the fact that Kaiba had raised his voice just a tad or maybe it was the fact that he hadn't actually said anything very comforting, but Mokuba stormed out of the room. Kaiba sighed and closed his eyes. This was a mess. Even Noa hadn't really been able to shake Mokuba's resolve, yet one careless sentence from Anzu Masaki and suddenly they were fighting. </p><p>"You have the emotional intelligence of a potato," Anzu pointed out bluntly. </p><p>"You were the one who started this mess," Kaiba pointed out and frankly he had had some much harsher words to choose from. Still he was feeling a bit out of his depth. He couldn't really solve this with cards, dueling or even his vast monetary reserves, so he supposed he was actually going to have to talk to his brother.</p><p>"I'm sorry. I thought you had told him," Anzu said, a bit quieter. Everyone else seemed to just quietly watch the scene unfold, keeping whatever comments they had to themselves. </p><p>Kaiba sighed, sat up and prepared to pull the cannula out of his veins to get up and follow his brother. </p><p>"<em>Don't</em>!" Anzu yelled:"God, you're an idiot. I'll go have a word with him.  He's a nice reasonable boy, he's just a little shaken up by all that's happened."</p><p>Kaiba snorted:"I don't get why he's so upset over this. We've had way worse than me being stabbed. It shouldn't throw him off that much."</p><p>"You shouldn't be mad at him," Shizuka put in. </p><p>"I'm not. He just usually handles things better."</p><p>"Well, I think seeing your brother get stabbed is a pretty big deal. I haven't experienced, but I still have nightmares about mine drowning when I can't save him. And I did save him," Shizuka's voice was quiet and she was quietly standing in the corner of the room, inspecting her shoes, but it was quiet enough for everyone to hear her clearly. "Besides, just because something happens over and over again doesn't make it less painful or scary." That was true enough, Seto supposed. No matter how many times his little brother got kidnapped, and it had happened a lot, it never made him any less worried. </p><p>"Plus I'm pretty sure the social workers freaked him out a bit," Shizuka added quietly. </p><p>That caused Kaiba's face to suddenly go several shades paler:"Social workers? <em>Why</em> were their social workers?" </p><p>"Well, I suppose, because you were bleeding pretty bad and they thought the knife was sure to have severely damage some vital organs," Anzu explained: "Apparently it was a mixture of looking worse than it was and it being a small miracle. They asked Mokuba if you had any other family and Mokuba said that you were his only living family and you were living together. I think they were a bit freaked out about this and maybe they weren't sure how you're going to be, so they called some social workers. They had a word with Mokuba..."</p><p><em>"Why didn't any of you tell me this right away?!" </em> Seto's voice was so loud it made Anzu jump:"Why weren't the first words out of your mouth "There are some social workers you need to take care of," the way he said "take care of" sounded as if Kaiba was ready to shoot them in the face. </p><p>"They were just doing their job. By the time you - <em>Kaiba</em>!" Anzu screamed as Kaiba yanked the cannulas out of his arm, leaped out of his bed and ran into the hospital corridor. He was gone so quick he might have as well teleported. Anzu looked after him worriedly and wondered if she should follow him and yell at him some more. What was it with every good duelist blatantly ignoring solid medical advice?</p><p>"<em>Mokuba</em>!" Kaiba's strong baritone seemed to echo in the hospital hallway, even if it wasn't that quiet to begin with. </p><p>Mokuba was quietly sitting by himself on a white bench, looking a bit surprised to hear his brother, who then, strode over to him in his usual confident way, only wincing every so often. </p><p>"You should have told me about the social workers."</p><p>"You should have -," Mokuba began, but then his gaze became fixated on something else:"Nii-sama, you're bleeding..."</p><p>Kaiba followed Mokuba's gaze, raised his arm and noticed that he was bleeding from the arm where he had just pulled out every wire connected to him from:"Not important."</p><p>"Yes, it is. You should go back to bed," Mokuba wiped his face, put on the most forced smile in the history of smiles and stood up. A trio of angry looking medical staff were making their way towards his big brother, which instantly wiped the already struggling smile off his face.</p><p>"Mr. Kaiba, are you that keen on staying with us longer that you're actively working to make yourself worse?" a snarky blond said sharply:"You don't just pull the cannulas out of your wrist and walk off. Do I really need to explain to you why this is dangerous or does the trail of blood you've left from your room to here illustrate my point?" </p><p>"I had matters more pressing to attend to," Kaiba said in his no-nonsense powerful CEO voice as he tried to appear even taller, standing straight, pressing his lips together to avoid wincing. Now that the painkillers were no longer being administered to his system his stab wound was making itself harder to ignore.</p><p>"Matters like working your way towards an earlier grave, I presume." </p><p>This comment made tears well-up in Mokuba's eyes and Kaiba clenched his fists, before being caught slightly off guard by Mokuba yelling at the nurse that this was all his fault and she shouldn't yell at his big brother.</p><p>"None of this is your fault!" The nurse and Kaiba said in perfect unison, making Kaiba feel even more irritable, but the nurse smiled:"Seems we agree on something at least." </p><p>Kaiba sighed:"If I go back to bed will both of you calm down?" </p><p>"Oh don't do it to calm <em>me</em> down. You should do it for your own health and safety," the nurse said. </p><p>"Mokuba, come on," Kaiba ordered, but he was still worried his brother might not follow as he usually did. What with them sort of being in the middle of a fight. An entirely needless worry as it turned out as Mokuba practically clung to him. </p><p>They still had an audience in Kaiba's room so everyone got to witness the fascinating show of Kaiba's wrist being bandaged and the cannulas being inserted into his other arm while the doctor lectured him on how he could damage himself and how the whole thing could get infected. The only one who seemed seriously moved by this lecture, was of course, Mokuba. So Kaiba had effectively, in trying to make his brother worry less, made him worry more. Great. </p><p>"But he'll still be able to come home in a few days?" Mokuba asked.</p><p>"Well, if his wounds don't get infected and he stops acting like an idiot, he might."</p><p>"Oh, I wouldn't count on that. He's always acting like an idiot from what I've seen," Honda put in, earning glares from both of the Kaiba brothers. </p><p>"I'd just like him to come home in time for my birthday," Mokuba admitted quietly, shrugging.</p><p>"I will, don't worry," Kaiba said in the same serious tone he used most of the time when trying to comfort his little brother. If he sounded confident, surely that was reassuring.</p><p>"When's your birthday?" Yugi asked conversationally as the snarky nurse finally left, informing them visiting hours would end soon. Kaiba was frankly thankful for that note. </p><p>"July 7th," Mokuba replied. </p><p>"That's in just six days!" Shizuka exclaimed. </p><p>"Yeah, I know."</p><p>"Does Kaiba throw amazing big parties for you? With all the money KC has you must have some pretty amazing parties!" Anzu put in excitedly, possibly imagining endless dance-floors with discoballs and music until early hours. </p><p>"Well, we go on trips and do things together and he does get me presents and we have food. It's great!" </p><p>"But no parties?" Anzu pressed.</p><p>"Well, it's just me and my brother, I don't know if two people counts as a party." </p><p>"It doesn't. It definitely doesn't," Honda put in. </p><p>"Would you like parties?" Yugi offered and for once Kaiba seemed actually interested in the conversation that was taking place.</p><p>"I mean... I like just spending time with my brother. I don't know who else we would invite. We've never really had other friends..."</p><p>"Well you do now," Anzu pointed out and everyone else were quick to agree.</p><p>"You all just want to come to my house and eat my food," Kaiba said. </p><p>"Not at all. We just want Mokuba to have a nice birthday," Anzu said. </p><p>"I <em>have</em> nice birthdays every year," Mokuba said and Kaiba raised an eyebrow. They had had some very not nice birthdays along the way. "Recently," Mokuba corrected: "Nii-sama always does nice things for me." He said confidently, but then he did look over to his brother in a hopeful quizzical way:"But having a party does sound nice. Would you - " </p><p>"If they show up with cake and presents I won't shut the door in their face," Kaiba said. This, he thought, rather a conservative statement, earned cheers all around and Mokuba climbed to the bed and wrapped himself loosely around Kaiba for a moment. </p><p>Yugi then asked Mokuba what he would like for his birthday to which Mokuba stared at him bit blankly and then said:"I just told you. I want my brother to come home."</p><p>Kaiba looked like he might be sick by the awws that the girls let out:"I think he means something he can give," Kaiba pointed out dryly. </p><p>"Oh. Right. I don't know. I'm not hellbent on dueling you or anything..."</p><p>Kaiba raised an eyebrow and wondered if he should point out he wasn't hellbent on it either. No point, likely. Even he had to admit he might have been just a tad obsessed with beating Yugi occasionally. Besides, his brother never meant these things as insults. He glanced over at the laptop that stood on the small cupboard besides his bed and reached for it, Mokuba was ready to lift it for him in an instant.</p><p>"It's not that heavy," Kaiba muttered quietly. Was this how it was going to be now? His little brother not letting him lift anything heavier than a piece of paper. He really wanted to talk to Mokuba, ask if he was okay and reassure him a bit, if he could. See if he was still mad. He didn't seem mad, but he could have just been more scared than mad for the moment. However talking about feelings of any sort was near impossible for Kaiba under the best of circumstances and Yugi and his buddies providing a live audience to everything he did meant he wasn't going to have a meaningful emotional conversation with anyone, even his little brother, who currently seemed glued to him.</p><p>"You really shouldn't work. Didn't you hear the doctor," Anzu began.</p><p>"Not working. Checking the news," Kaiba clipped, hoping that would stop her lecturing. He was a grown man and a vastly rich CEO, he didn't need to be lectured by Anzu Masaki.</p><p>"You weren't out for that long. Are you really concerned you missed something important?" Honda asked. </p><p>"Yes. I'm checking the news reports on my stabbing." Kaiba explained, growing more aggravated with each reply. Honda was just as bad as Katsuya. In fact he was possibly worse. At least Jounouchi could duel somewhat adequately, he had yet to ever see Honda do anything useful. Were his friends aware that he was such a pointless addition to their team? Kaiba supposed that wasn't the point of friendships, but he had never really understood what was, so he went back to reading. This was bad. He was already on the front page of several news pages, not the main news piece, but by tomorrow anyone who cared would know. </p><p>"Are you worried they caught you at a bad angle?" Honda teased, but Kaiba barely listened. </p><p>"He's worried about Mokuba-kun," Yugi provided, more insightful than Kaiba had expected him to be. </p><p>"Mokuba?" Shizuka asked and Kaiba just nodded grimly in agreement. He looked over to his younger brother who looked worried too:"With nii-sama in the hospital, they're bound to try and kidnap me. Get ransom money at best, at worse..."</p><p>"They need to manage it first. The news sites may make it sound like I'm out of the picture, but really far from it," he looked over to Mokuba:"I won't let anyone hurt you. Even if they do manage to get you."</p><p>Mokuba nodded:"I know," he said and that offered Kaiba some small amount of relief. At least he hadn't shaken his brother's belief in him always coming to save him in getting a little dramatic in a duel. </p><p>"But I hate the idea of you hurting yourself worse because of me, so how about I try not to get kidnapped?" Mokuba offered:"Besides, they won't be able to break into a hospital after all. They have security."</p><p>Kaiba frowned:"You won't be staying at a hospital."</p><p>Mokuba looked at him in bewilderment: "Sure I will. You don't get to come home yet. They said..."</p><p>"I know what they said, but Mokuba, you can't stay <em>here. </em>Look around you. Where would you sleep?"</p><p>"I can sleep on the bench they're all sitting on right now," Mokuba said, dead serious. </p><p>Kaiba smiled: "You'll be much more comfortable at home. There are beds and actual decent food and - change of clothes and you'll be <em>safe. </em>I'll have the security be tightened and there will be someone inside and outside the house all the time."</p><p>"Oh, big brother, about the security..." Mokuba began, looking guilty and Kaiba just knew something bad was coming. </p><p>"I fired most of the security staff, who worked at the tournament."</p><p>Kaiba stared a moment, took a deep breath, winced, sighed:"That's - something you might have told me sooner, but I see your reasoning. It's problematic though."</p><p>"I'm sorry," Mokuba said quietly. </p><p>Kaiba looked up at Yugi and the company, all staring at them, none of them thinking of leaving:"Will you excuse us for a moment?" Anzu was the first one to get up, others followed politely, although reluctantly. Finally, alone with his brother Kaiba could speak more freely.</p><p>"It's okay, I think, really. We have a lot of security stationed at the headquarters we can just remove them from there. Even if they break in and steal prototypes or something," he shrugged:"I'll come up with new ideas. It's all pretty secondary for the most part."</p><p>"Are you sure you're not overthinking? I know I get kidnapped a lot, but no one has ever tried that from our home."</p><p>"I know, which is why I want you to go home and stay there."</p><p>Mokuba nodded, swallowed:"I don't want to go without you."</p><p>Kaiba sighed:"I know, but I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. I'll be home in a few days. Isono will be there too. Provided you didn't fire him?"</p><p>"I'd never fire him."</p><p>Seto smiled a tiniest bit:"Good. Now before our live audience comes back... are you okay? Why didn't you tell me about the social workers?"</p><p>"I didn't want to worry you."</p><p>"You need to tell me these things," Kaiba said, aiming somewhere between soft and stern:"I'm jumping through a lot of juridical loopholes seeing as I can't <em>technically </em>be your legal guardian until I'm 20. Well, I mostly have my lawyers do it, but this kind of thing is really important to tell me about. You know that."</p><p>"Is Hinata Saitō the name of the woman, who's - well..."</p><p>"Yes. Legally she's our legal guardian, but we have an agreement that this is only in theory and that aside from occasionally signing documents and answering phone calls she stays away and lets me handle things. I am not sure she would take you in if asked..."</p><p>"I don't <em>want</em> to live with her! I've never met her!"</p><p>"I know. You don't have to. I'm just thinking of every eventuality. Did they ask her about you?"</p><p>"Yes, but I wasn't sure what to say, so I mostly pretended to be in shock, cried a bit. I mean - it wasn't that hard really."</p><p>Seto smiled: "Good thinking. Think they were suspicious?" </p><p>"No. It didn't need much pretending..."</p><p>Kaiba ran his hand through his little brother's hair affectionately:"I'm fine. It's fine. I'll call a few lawyers."</p><p>"Will they take me to live with her?" Mokuba asked.</p><p>"I'm not sure how she's react to that."</p><p>"If she doesn't agree to have me there, what the.. will they..."</p><p>"No one's taking us back to an orphanage," Kaiba said sternly:"Ever. Not until I'm alive and kicking." </p><p>"Us?"</p><p>"I'm also legally not an adult."</p><p>Much to Kaiba's surprise Mokuba relaxed:"At least we'll be together..."</p><p>"Of course. We'll always be together," he said, easily, naturally, like it was a fact of the universe no one could ever argue. </p><p>"Why don't you just have someone we can trust be our legal guardian?"</p><p>"Because there is no one we can trust," Kaiba said and he said it with the same kind of ease and conviction as he had his last statement. </p><p>"Why not someone like Isono?"</p><p>"Hmm. Not a a terrible idea. I didn't know him back when I made the arrangements."</p><p>"Well maybe we should ask him."</p><p>"Later, not now. Right now, I need to work on my plans," Kaiba glanced towards the window:"Which floor are we on?"</p><p>"Third. You're not thinking of escaping. The windows don't even open!"</p><p>"They don't, but they break, I'm sure. But no. I'm not thinking of that yet. I have several, better, less destructive plans that need to fail before I grab you and throw us both out the window. Let's call that plan 27," he smiled. </p><p>"You have 27 plans? That's amazing!" </p><p>"Give or take. They're not all complete and some of them are just unrealistic fantasies of me brutally murdering anyone who dares to hint that we should be taken somewhere. The point is, I have plenty of plans and there's no need for you to worry. No one is ever separating us."</p><p>"I know," Mokuba said brightly:"I know you're always 10 steps ahead of everyone. I know you can fix things, I just wish... you're already hurt."</p><p>"I'm fine. The fact that I'm stabbed does nothing to prevent my brain from working. Don't worry," Kaiba assured, but talking to Mokuba seemed to relax him too:"Anything else you need to tell me, before the nerd herd undoubtedly pours back in? Are you still mad at me?"</p><p>It seemed that reminding Mokuba he was mad at Kaiba wasn't a good idea, he had forgotten, it seemed, but now, given the time, seemed to be thinking about it again: "Yes," he decided seriously:"Yes, I am. It was awful to Yugi, but more importantly it was just stupid."</p><p>"And you've never done stupid reckless things to try and save me? Like - I don't know - join a deadly virtual game." </p><p>"i have," Mokuba conceded.</p><p>"But you wouldn't again. You've learnt your lesson and you can promise me you will never again do a deadly stupid thing in a desperate attempt to save your older brother, who by the way, can handle things?"</p><p>"No, but... if you had died..."</p><p>"I had to try. I knew there was a chance that Yugi might not go through with murder, he's not like that, I did what I had to..."</p><p>Mokuba nodded grimly: "I liked my way where I asked them for help better."</p><p>Kaiba sighed: "You know I'm extremely unlikely to <em>ever</em> do that..."</p><p>"Well, I get where you're coming from, I really do, but can you please try and not... kill yourself. Even if you think for a moment you can't save me otherwise, because you can. You always can. You always save me. You're so smart. You'll figure it out."</p><p>Mokuba's unwavering trust in Kaiba was heartwarming, even if Kaiba sometimes wondered if it was undeserved. He had failed back there in the Duelist Kingdom and he had had his other losses too, but whereas they seemed to haunt him for ages, Mokuba could get over them in an instant and carry on believing his brother was infallible. Well Kaiba did try his hardest to live up to that expectation and for what it mattered, he was <em>nearly </em>infallible and he would always save Mokuba when it mattered. He had to believe that fully too or the whole foundation he built his life on would start crumbling:"I know. You're right. Even if I failed you that one time such inexcusable behaviour won't happen again."</p><p>Mokuba almost looked shocked:"You didn't fail me. You've never failed me! We ended up being fine."</p><p>"Thanks to <em>Yugi</em>," Kaiba said with obvious distaste. </p><p>"So what? I used Yugi's help to save you too. Doesn't change the fact that I came to save you or the fact we were eventually saved, so no one failed anyone."</p><p>Kaiba wasn't sure if he fully followed Mokuba's logic or agreed with it, but right now he just wanted his little brother to feel safe and happy and think things were a lot more fine than they really were:"So... all good?"</p><p>"All good!" Mokuba said brightly, jumped off the bed, threw the door to Kaiba's room open and much to his dismay invited everyone back in, turned out Honda and Shizuka had been the only ones to leave, Anzu and Yugi were still waiting and re-joined them in Kaiba's room happily. </p><p>"You're not in trouble are you, Mokuba-kun?" Yugi asked in a sort of kind worry that drove Kaiba up the wall.</p><p>"No of course not, why would I be?" the younger boy asked brightly.</p><p>"Good, well, we were thinking, if Kaiba's okay with it of course that if you don't want to stay alone in your - " Yugi never got to finish his sentence, because a nurse practically barged in and told everyone in no uncertain terms that visiting hours were open and they needed to leave.</p><p>"Could I please have a few more minutes? There's something I would like to discuss with Kaiba-kun," Yugi tried politely. </p><p>"You can discuss it first thing in the morning," the nurse said.</p><p>"But..." Yugi began quietly, but the nurse just blew up on him completely.</p><p>"Listen, we've been lenient enough as everything is," she said, looking around the absolute mess Kaiba's room had become, candy, games, laptops, paperwork, every surface was overflown with something; "You lot need to leave and Mokuba Kaiba will be coming with me." </p><p>Kaiba, who had only been half-listening until now, suddenly sat ramrod straight on his bed, while Mokuba slowly got further and further from the nurse until he was up against the wall of the room, standing by his brother's bedside and holding in to the fabric of his sleeve:"Why should he come with you?" Kaiba asked in his best no-nonsense CEO voice. </p><p>"We have been unable to get in touch with Mrs. Hinata Saitō. So until such time until we do and she will come and collect Mokuba, because he has no other living relatives to stay with, we will have him taken to a children's safe house," the nurse explained in a calm professional tone that made no one feel any calmer. Mokuba had gotten about 20 shades paler and while Kaiba did his best to keep his pokerface, he too, looked a bit paler than he had before.</p><p>"There is absolutely no reason for any of this. I have a fully staffed mansion equipped with far superior security measures any building you have to take him to."</p><p>"You may have whatever building you like at your disposal, Mr. Kaiba, but as long as you don't have a relative or a legal adult, who has signed all the necessary documents and agreed that they will take care of your younger brother, no building will suffice."</p><p>"I have a whole staff of legal adults!" Kaiba practically shouted:"He's safer there than he would be literally anywhere else."</p><p>"Rules are rules, Mr. Kaiba."</p><p>"I don't care about the rules! I will not allow you to take him!" Kaiba shouted, doing his best to tower high and mighty and look like he was the one entirely in charge of this situation. Mokuba was now fully gripping Kaiba's arm with tears in his eyes.</p><p>The nurse however, just smirked:"No one <em>cares</em> what you think, Mr. Kaiba. You're a 17-year old boy. You may play presidents at your company, but you don't call the shots here."</p><p>"I don't<em> play anything!</em>" Kaiba seethed:"I <em>am</em> the president of The Kaiba Corporation, one of the most powerful organizations in Japan. I <em>do</em> call the shots, I <em>make</em> the calls and I'll make you regret the day you were born if you dare speak to me like that!"</p><p>The nurse seemed unimpressed by this. It was the lack of a coat, he thought. His coat always made him look more powerful. Or a suit. And his suitcase. Hospital pajamas definitely didn't help. Or the fact that he wasn't standing.</p><p>"Wait, just a moment!" Yugi called and everyone's gazes turned to him, Kaiba having totally forgotten him and Anzu even still being there.</p><p>"All you need is an adult to sign some papers saying they will take care of Mokuba until Mrs. Saitō is found and Kaiba-kun gets out of the hospital, yes? Well, I'm sure my grandfather will agree to take Mokuba in until then."</p><p>"It's not that simple. We can't just give the child to a first adult who comes along. At the very least we need Saitō's permission along with the adult's consent." </p><p>"Really? They don't just pass children along, like candy anymore? Wow, the Japanese adoption service sure has improved since my days," Seto said, voice dripping with sarcasm:"Mokuba can you pass me a cell phone?"</p><p>Mokuba seemed unable to do anything that involved physically letting go of Kaiba for the time being, so he re-directed his request:"Anzu, could you..." there was a cell phone in his hands before he could finish. He dialed a number from memory:"It's me. Someone get me Saitō in 5 minutes. I'll triple the bonuses if you do, if you don't, you may not have a job this coming week. Am I being clear?" He hung up the next moment, then looked up at the nurse:"Give me ten minutes. I'll get everything in order."</p><p>"You have five."</p><p>The room was deadly quiet for a moment as the nurse left. Mokuba was holding on to Kaiba's arm so tight it was sure to leave bruises, but Seto didn't care. He wasn't trying to hurt him. He was just scared. Kaiba was furious. Mokuba had hardly been this scared when they last faced Pegasus. He turned to talk to his brother. He would have liked less of an audience, but after Yugi had just promised to help them he couldn't exactly throw them all out:"Mokuba, look at me. Tell me what do you want to do?"</p><p>"I want to stay with you," Mokuba said seriously:"I always want to stay by your side."</p><p>Kaiba tried not to sigh at that:"I know and I'm here and it will be okay, but you can't sleep in my hospital room. What do you think of Yugi's plan?"</p><p>"I like it," Mokuba admitted:"I could be really excited about it if the alternatives weren't so terrifying."</p><p>"Don't worry, Mokuba. I'm sure it will all be okay and you can come stay with us until Kaiba gets discharged in a few days!" Yugi hastened to assure.</p><p>"Are you sure your grandfather would really be okay with this?" Kaiba asked seriously:"I kidnapped him, I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't all that keen on your plan." </p><p>"Yes! I'm sure, it's fine!" Yugi said brightly:"I'll find a payphone and ask him now!" he said and rushed out, Anzu followed, leaving Kaiba and Mokuba alone once more. Kaiba's phone went off and poor Mrs. Saitō learned that being in a tanning salon was not a valid excuse for not answering her phone. This fact was presented to her in no kind terms. After the phone call was over Kaiba turned back to Mokuba:"Are you sure this is okay? If you don't want this, I can think of something else."</p><p>"No, it's a nice idea. I like it. I like it better than staying alone in the mansion. Yugi's really nice and if I'm going to feel safe with anyone other than you, it might be Yugi."</p><p>Kaiba thought that was stupid considering Yugi constantly had his valuables either stolen or destroyed. Was he making a huge mistake allowing this? After all, now that he was in hospital someone was sure to try and kidnap Mokuba. "Nii-sama. Are you okay?" Mokuba asked, clearly reading his brother's thoughts even when he tried to put on a perfect pokerface that would have fooled anyone else. </p><p>"Huh? Yes. Perfect. You're fine with this then?"</p><p>"Yes. I said it 3 times now!"</p><p>Kaiba smiled: "Yes, but you're also clutching my arm so tight, I think I have no circulation left in my arm."</p><p>Mokuba let go of him instantly:"I'm sorry, I hurt you."</p><p>"It's fi-," Kaiba didn't get to finish, because Yugi burst in announcing his grandfather was very much on board and already coming to the hospital to speed things along.</p><p>"Good. I've gotten off the phone with Saitō, She will authorize it. Obviously. Mokuba has the keys to our mansion, you can go there and get his clothes and whatever he might need. I'll pull some of our security from the head offices and have them secure your house."</p><p>"It's fine, Kaiba. Mokuba will be safe with us."</p><p>"Mhmm. Sure. Just like the God cards were. Or Exodia." </p><p>"You really should be nicer after Yugi is being so kind and helping you and Mokuba out," Anzu put in. </p><p>"It's fine, Anzu. Kaiba is just worried about Mokuba. I get it. He gets taken a lot," Yugi said, trying to make peace. </p><p>"Yes. I've done a kidnapping from your place. I know first hand it's not hard. One of the easiest kidnappings I've done in fact. So you're getting extra security. And you," he turned to Mokuba:"Don't let anyone take you. I will come and save you, but if I'm forced to do that I my have to stay in hospital past your birthday."</p><p>Mokuba nodded:"I won't be kidnapped. Most people won't even know where to find me."</p><p>"That is our advantage," Kaiba agreed. </p><p>"It will be okay," Yugi insited:"We can invite everyone over for a big sleepover and take turns staying up."</p><p>"Doing what? Watching Mokuba sleep? That's creepy and a bit of an overkill," Anzu thought.</p><p>"I'm not opposed to it," Kaiba said honestly.</p><p>"I like the sleepover part," Mokuba admitted:"I've never had one. Well, brother and I have pulled all nighters working, but not like a classical sleepover."</p><p>"Aww, then we really must have a sleepover," Anzu agreed brightly.</p><p>Sugoroku Mutou made it to the hospital in under an hour. All paperwork was handled in record speed and by 7 o'clock a very mentally exhausted Seto Kaiba was putting on a brave face for his little brother who, at this point, didn't seem worried at all. Seto however, was doing his best to hide how deeply shaken to his very core this whole experience had left him. He had not had his authority questioned in years, no one had dared to bring up the fact that he was underage in ages. Yet apparently one stab wound and a set of clothes that made him look less intimidating was all it took to shake the ground he stood on. Well, no matter how much they shook it, he would remain standing. </p><p>"Call me if <em>anything</em> happens," Kaiba said and looked over to Yugi:"That applies to you too. You don't go and run off trying to save him yourself. You call me first." </p><p>"Kaiba-kun it will be fine. We'll have a fun night, having a sleepover and eating junk food! No one will get kidnapped," Yugi promised. </p><p>Kaiba looked around the room:"You'll take this food, I hope."</p><p>"Leave some for Nii-sama," Mokuba insisted. "He's a picky eater and he can live off Dr. Pepper and Meiji chocolate for days, so leave him some," Mokuba wrapped his arms around his big brother:"Get some rest. I can handle some of the more urgent work stuff."</p><p>Kaiba nodded: "I have a laptop too. I'm sure I'll be bored. Have a fun night. Call me."</p><p>Kaiba already knew he was not going to sleep a single eyeful that night. He was going to sit here and wait for the inevitable call that announced that the vice-president of the Kaiba Corporation had been kidnapped or gotten hurt or... something. He sighed. He was being stupid and overbearing. Mokuba could take care of himself for a few days. Still, he doubted he would be able to sleep. There was another almost equally worrying matter to think about and that was that he now owed Yugi Mutou so much more than he would have ever deemed acceptable. He had to think of a way to pay him back.</p>
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<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Sleepovers, slushies and ramen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Anzu thought taking 3 separate black sedans to Yugi's house was a definite overkill, but Mokuba didn't seem all that phased by any of it. Kaiba Corporation's security was already stationed inside and outside the building, making Anzu and Yugi feel more uneasy instead of safe, but as Mokuba greeted them all warmly by their names and they greeted him back, the whole thing felt a tad less creepy. Plus, once inside, the security team seemed to have the incredible ability to seem entirely invisible. They were forgotten soon enough and everyone were only reminded of them when Jounouchi came over and was unable to get through the door. It very nearly escalated into a fight and while Mokuba was sure his brother might have enjoyed the knowledge his security had troubled Jonouchi, he rushed to inform the staff that the order "not to let anyone in" did not apply to Yugi's friends. He would have thought that was obvious, really. </p><p>It was just past 10 o'clock when Kaiba's phone rang. He saw Mokuba's caller ID and his heart jumped to his throat. This was it. Mokuba had been taken. Someone had him. There would be ransom demands. God, let it just be ransom demands. He could just pay now and find whoever it was later and get back at them: “What's wrong?!" Kaiba practically shouted into the phone. </p><p>Silence on the other side. Kaiba's heart sank. </p><p>"Nii-sama..." a soft apologetic voice came from the other side.</p><p>"Mokuba! What's going on?!"</p><p>"I... I just called to tell you what we've been doing."</p><p>"<em>Oh</em>." Kaiba took a deep breath. By this time a team of 3 doctors had reached Kaiba's room. One of them carrying a defibrillator of all things: “Mr. Kaiba, what's wrong?"</p><p>Kaiba removed the phone from his ear, so Mokuba wouldn't hear: “Nothing, I'm fine."</p><p>"Your heart rate just rose to 120 beats a minute!"</p><p>"I'm fine! It's nothing. I was startled. Leave!"</p><p>He picked up the phone again to hear Mokuba's voice: “Nii-sama, are you okay?"</p><p>"Yes, I'm fine."</p><p>"I heard doctors screaming."</p><p>"It's fine. I thought something happened."</p><p>"Oh. Well, you said to call if anything happened and a lot of fun stuff has so, I thought I'd... call you..."</p><p>Seto hummed in response. He wasn't really much of a conversationalist, but he didn't mind listening to Mokuba: “Well, tell me then?"</p><p>"We made home-made ramen with Shizuka and Anzu and it tasted <em>amazing</em>! Really good, better than anything our chef ever makes!" Mokuba exclaimed excitedly.</p><p>"Considering our chef worked for two Michelin star restaurants I find that concerning, but okay," he could guess what Mokuba meant through. Their chef tended to go for fancy restaurant style meals, whereas Mokuba preferred things that tasted more home-made. </p><p>"And then Jounouchi taught me the most amazing thing!" Mokuba went on.</p><p>"I doubt you have anything to learn from him."</p><p>"He made this sandwich that had fried bacon and bacon flavoured potato crisps and fries on top, topped with ketchup." </p><p>"Right. I'm telling you now, you're only allowed one of those a month if you want to go on eating them."</p><p>"Aww, well I bet the chef would roll her eyes at it anyways. She got so mad when I said I wanted toast with ketchup the other day. Guess I'll make it when she's not in."</p><p>Kaiba just hummed in response. </p><p>"Anyway, we're going to watch some films now and eat some snacks and go to bed, I guess."</p><p>"I thought you just ate? Ramen and dreadful sandwiches?"</p><p>"We did, but I didn't really eat all day. Have you eaten?"</p><p>Kaiba looked over to the 5 empty cans of Dr. Pepper and a litany of candy wrappers. Had that really been all him?: “In a manner of speaking."</p><p>"Did you not have dinner?"</p><p>"We did, but it was awful. I'd rather not eat at all."</p><p>Mokuba sighed: “We'll bring you some ramen tomorrow."</p><p>Kaiba just hummed again. He liked ramen.</p><p>"So I'll see you tomorrow."</p><p>"Mmm. Call if you need anything."</p><p>Not even 20 minutes passed between that and the next call. This time Kaiba wasn't as worried when he answered: “Yes?"</p><p>"Nii-sama, can Isono come in to watch a scary movie with us?"</p><p>"He's working, Mokuba. Besides, don't you have all of Yugi's friends there?"</p><p>"We do, but we feel bad about him having to watch it all the way from the other end of the room, not being able to see it properly. I said he could join us, but he said he has orders."</p><p>"He does."</p><p>"But if his orders are to watch over me he can just as well do that from the sofa, can't he?"</p><p>Kaiba sighed: “He'd be watching the movie then, not you. Why are you watching a horror film anyway?"</p><p>"Why not?"</p><p>"Well, if you think that's a good idea..."</p><p>"You're telling me I shouldn't?"</p><p>"I'm not saying anything. Just maybe you should think about it?"</p><p>"I'm going to have nightmares anyway. I'd rather have them about zombies than you getting stabbed."</p><p>"You don't think that would just make them worse?"</p><p>"No, I think I might just write one horror over with another."</p><p>"Interesting theory. Let me know if the empirical evidence supports that later. And Mokuba?"</p><p>"Yes, Nii-sama?"</p><p>"I thought this is obvious, but maybe I should remind you that I'm at a hospital. Meaning you can't climb to my bed in the middle of the night when you're scared."</p><p>"I know." </p><p>"Okay. Good. Just checking."</p><p>"Good night, Nii-sama!" Mokuba said brightly.</p><p>"Good night, Mokuba," Kaiba said and sighed. Watching a scary movie was definitely not a good idea, but telling Mokuba off likely meant he'd want to do it even more. He wondered if he'd be getting another phone call at 3 in the morning when Mokuba found he couldn't sleep. </p><hr/><p>Empirical evidence did indeed prove Mokuba's theory wrong. Turned out watching a zombie movie on the day your big brother was stabbed, did not make your nightmares better or go away and you were still just as likely to dream of the said big brother being stabbed, except now he was being stabbed by zombies and much as that seemed whimsical and ridiculous in theory, it now had Mokuba very much awake at 4 in the morning, looking at the ceiling of Yugi's living room, where they all had decided to camp out in sleeping bags. (They had not, after all, decided to take turns watching over Mokuba. There was so much security around.) Mokuba was playing with his phone, itching to call Seto, just to hear his voice, just to make sure he was okay, but doing so also meant defeat, meant admitting he was scared and had done a stupid thing watching that movie, just like his brother had known him to. Plus at a time like this Seto might actually be asleep and Mokuba wanted him to get some rest. Plus, he needed to grow up a little. He couldn't always rely on his big brother for everything. He was already carrying too much weight on his young shoulders. </p><p>"Mokuba-kun," someone whispered in the dark. </p><p>"Yugi?"</p><p>"Yeah. Is everything all right?"</p><p>"Yeah. It's fine. I just can't sleep."</p><p>"Well, it's been a pretty long day," Yugi pointed out vaguely.</p><p>"Yeah," Mokuba agreed: “Do you think my brother's asleep?"</p><p>"I think so. Were you thinking of calling him?"</p><p>"Not really. I want him to get some sleep, I just.."</p><p>"Miss him?"</p><p>"Yeah, but it's ridiculous. We just saw each other and I called him not so long ago."</p><p>"It's okay. He's in a hospital. You worry about him. It's understandable. I'm sure he misses you too if he's not asleep."</p><p>Mokuba looked over to Yugi and smiled. Most of Yugi's friends were kind of mean to his brother and maybe they had good reasons to be, but Yugi was always so nice to everyone. He could see past their shortcomings and focus on the good things.</p><p>"I just think I should be able to be fine without him for a little bit. I don't want to... rely on him <em>all the time</em>. Today when that nurse came, I felt I couldn't really do anything. Nii-sama, asked me to pass him a phone and I couldn't even do that! He does <em>everything </em>for me and I can't even pass him a phone."</p><p>"You know that's not true. You do loads of things in the company from what I've seen. You - take charge in tournaments and all that. You do lots of really amazing things all the time."</p><p>That cheered Mokuba up a bit: “Thanks. Still... it bothered me."</p><p>"I get that. I feel that way about my Other Me all the time too. I love having him around and I wish he would always be, but I know one day we will part our ways and I'll need to learn to be strong on my own."</p><p>"But you can't be on your own. You're literally in the same body all the time," Mokuba pointed out.</p><p>"We are, but we can give each other some privacy. We can choose what the other sees and what we see. We just mostly choose to share things." </p><p>"Really? How does that work?" Mokuba asked curiously. Unlike his brother he didn't really hold a firm belief that Yugi had some sort of split personality disorder or whatever it was Kaiba believed. The Pharaoh thing actually seemed reasonable to Mokuba, not that he and Kaiba ever discussed it. </p><p> "It's difficult to explain. It's a feeling, but also a skill. We've gotten better at it over time."</p><p>"What's it like then? Being two souls in one body."</p><p>"Weird. Mostly good weird. You're never alone. I don't want to think about this too much, because I don't want Other Me to worry, but I don't really imagine being by myself again."</p><p>Mokuba hummed thoughtfully: “Well, Nii-sama and I are never going to be fully apart. We'll always stay together for as long as we live. We'll live in our mansion and build Kaiba Lands across the world and maybe one day, he will get to be happy again."</p><p>"You think he's not happy right now?"</p><p>Mokuba shrugged: “He never laughs anymore. You know, the way normal people do, not like when he summons a God Card. He did used to laugh and smile a lot when we were little, but now... he only ever sometimes does those sad comforting smiles that are supposed to make me feel better, but don't really mean he's happy and then he does cocky smiles and manic laughter a lot, but... you asked me what I'd want for my birthday and honestly - I'd like for him to smile, for real, but I don't think you can get me that. Unless you know a really good joke, but I've tried telling him jokes and I think he mostly finds them annoying. Also, I'm not really good at telling jokes. I always start laughing before I get to the end," Mokuba smiled sheepishly, shrugging. </p><p>"I'm sure you make Kaiba happy, Mokuba. He's just bad at showing it. Doesn't mean he's not actually happy."</p><p>"You think?" Mokuba asked hopefully.</p><p>"Yeah."</p><p>Mokuba was quiet for a moment, still fiddling with his phone. He couldn't exactly ask Seto, could he? "Is your other self awake too then?"</p><p>"Yeah, he is. Do you want to talk to him instead?"</p><p>"No, I was just wondering, can one of you sleep when the other doesn't?"</p><p>"Not really. We can sort of rest, but that's different."</p><p>"I see," Mokuba said. He didn't really. He had zero idea how that worked. </p><p>"You're both being too hard on yourselves," Anzu said suddenly, breaking the silence that had fallen. She got up from the sofa, that everyone had insisted she'd be the one to take and joined Yugi and Mokuba on the floor: “It's completely fine to depend on other people in life threatening situations and I know it feels like you depend on them all the time, but that's just because we're constantly in life threatening situations." </p><p>"There's a depressing thought if I ever heard one," Mokuba mumbled. </p><p>"I'm serious. And both Kaiba and Other Yugi rely on the two of you just as much!"</p><p>Mokuba let out a snort and Yugi didn't seem convinced either: “It's true," Anzu insisted: “You didn't see what a mess the Other Yugi was without you! And Mokuba, the only reason Kaiba has to stay all tough and put together is because he has you to protect and love and - lean on. "</p><p>Mokuba smiled: “Yeah. I think you might be right, but... it's almost my fault that he's so - serious," it clearly wasn't the word he meant, but there didn't seem to be a better one at his disposal: "If he didn't have to spend his whole life fighting everyone for a better life for us, trying to protect me from all the bad things that came our way and there was plenty, I was used to being in constant mortal danger way before I met Yugi, then maybe he'd still be smiling more and laughing in a way normal people do and..." </p><p>"Be able to express emotions and make genuine human contacts with people other than you?" Anzu offered, making Mokuba visibly wince.</p><p>"Yeah, that... if I had been stronger and more able to handle things, instead of always staying behind..."</p><p>"Stop it. You were a child. You <em>are</em> a child. Hell, none of us are actually adults yet. Stop setting unrealistic expectations on yourselves. And that goes for both of you. And go to sleep. I'm tired," Anzu announced and went back to the sofa. </p><p>"Wow, she's tough," Mokuba muttered.</p><p>"I'm also right!" Anzu called. </p><p>"Wha's goin'on?" a very sleepy voice of Jounouchi called: “Di' someone get themselves kidnapped?"</p><p>"Nope! All here!" Mokuba called and they all shared a laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. </p><hr/><p>Instead of a breakfast at home, the next morning began with Mokuba taking everyone to his and his brother's favourite patisserie as a thank you for letting him stay with them, treating everyone on the company card. Then they made over to Kaiba's room and poured in, filling the room with the smell of sweets, baked bread and merry voices. Kaiba was typing away furiously, his hair was sticking out in various directions and he looked arguably worse than he had the day before: “Mokuba," Kaiba said and reached one hand out to take the paper bag of croissants from his brother without looking up: “The food here is awful," he announced, took a mini croissant and basically stuffed the whole thing in his mouth, before he continued typing. Then he chose to actually say something with his mouth full, which no one understood except for Mokuba, who replied: “Yes."</p><p>"What did he say?" Anzu asked Mokuba.</p><p>"He asked if we got doughnuts."</p><p>"Man, Kaiba's so rude! We come to see him, bring him food and he doesn't even look at us!" Jounouchi whined. </p><p>At that Kaiba slammed his laptop lid shut and directed his gaze at Jounouchi: “Mokuba bought me breakfast. In fact, he bought all of you breakfast, which you of course all humbly accepted and then proceeded to pick the absolute most expensive items on the menu that your broke selves could never afford, using my company money. But sure, by all means, I should thank you."</p><p>Anzu lowered her giant pink milkshake topped with cherries and sprinkles and God knows what else guiltily.</p><p>Jounouchi however didn't feel an ounce of shame: “As if you can't afford it, rich boy! Of course, you'd be too stingy and selfish to buy anyone breakfast, unlike Mokuba here, who's actually nice, no idea where he's getting that from seeing as you offer him no examples on how to be a decent human being." </p><p>Kaiba just his grit teeth at that, opened his laptop again and picked his typing back up: “Why did you bring the dog in at all?" he muttered at Mokuba.</p><p>"Hey! That's a big talk from a guy who can barely stand!" </p><p>"Stop it, the both of you!" Anzu snapped: “No fighting!" </p><p>He's asking for it!" Katsuya argued. </p><p>"I don't care. This is a hospital. You can't start a fight here!" </p><p>Meanwhile Kaiba reached one hand out for a sip of the slushie Mokuba was drinking, which his younger brother happily provided: “Now my tongue's blue for a week," the older brother muttered. </p><p>"You know, I could do some of the work things. It's really no problem," Mokuba said as he noticed his brother take a momentary break from typing to roll his bandaged wrist: “I don't want you to get your wrists infected again."</p><p>"It's fine, Mokuba."</p><p>"It wasn't fine the first time! You were screaming in pain!" </p><p>It seemed Jounouchi and Anzu had given up arguing to turn their attention to this new, much more interesting argument taking place between the Kaiba brothers.</p><p>"I'm tougher now. And I'm taking it easy. Besides, if I don't have anything to work on, I'll just be bored."</p><p>Mokuba sighed and decided to give up on the matter.</p><p>"So the idiot's done this before? Injured himself and gotten it infected?"</p><p>"It wasn't from an injury the first time. You can also get your wrist infected from writing too much. It's quite rare, but our stepfather was an utter asshole and made Nii-sama work absurdly hard," Mokuba explained quietly. </p><p>"Ah, so that's where Kaiba gets it from," Jounouchi remarked, a thoughtless lighthearted quip, but one he really should have considered before making. </p><p>Kaiba could see the fit of utter rage coming before anyone else did. The plastic of the blue slushie cup cracked as Mokuba's hand instinctively curled into a wrist. A moment later he flung the whole blue concoction at Jounouchi, smearing his hair, clothes and just about everything else. But that wasn't the end of it. Just about when shocked Jounouchi was ready to retaliate, Mokuba spoke: “My brother is <em>nothing </em>like our stepfather," his voice was very quiet, but spoke of contained rage. "Our stepfather was a cruel heartless man, who did everything in his power to make our lives miserable. He took away everything that gave us joy. We weren't allowed a single toy. We weren't allowed anything even remotely fun or creative. I was allowed sleep so at least I could close my eyes and <em>dream </em>of things that were fun, but my brother wasn't allowed even that. He was made to study until he lost consciousness and then they woke him so he would continue. Our stepfather was a bastard, whose sole goal in life was to spread destruction and misery. He was the worst, cruelest, most disgusting excuse of a man, who had not an ounce of kindness in his heart and my brother - my big brother -"</p><p>"Mokuba, don't waste your breath, I really don't care what -," Kaiba began. </p><p>"<em>That's not the point!" </em>Mokuba screamed: "The point is he was the worst person I have ever known in my life and Seto is the best person in the entire world and I don't care if you guys see it or not, but I will <em>not</em> have anyone <em>ever</em> compare, my big brother, the best person in the entire world to this incarnation of evil and cruelty!"</p><p>The hospital room was deadly quiet. A sound of a needle dropping would have been deafening. Everyone, including Seto, seemed shocked that there could so much rage inside a small boy, who was usually so cheerful, bright happy and kind. The silence lingered, until Yugi proved that he was the bravest one of the lot, by speaking first: "I think it's timeforustoheadtoschoolnow. Mokuba-kun we'll see you after school. Ifyouwantto," Yugi's words were spoken in quick nervous forced brightness, before he literally pushed his friends out of the door, before Jounouchi could recover and start another fight. Lord knows how that would end. There might actually be some actual corpses if he didn't put an end to this here and now.</p><p>The silence hung even after Yugi and his friends had left. Mokuba sat next to his brother, his head hung low, looking at the grey floor splattered with blue liquid. </p><p>"Well that takes a weight off my shoulders," Kaiba said almost brightly: “I always wondered if you could be menacing enough when I'm not around to do that at the company. Clearly I had nothing to worry about."</p><p>Mokuba looked at his brother from underneath his bangs, clearly trying to decide if he was mocking him. </p><p>"I'm serious. It's a good quality to have. Sometimes. When needed. I think I might go overboard a bit," he really didn't want to encourage this kind of behaviour too much. Just like everyone else, Seto loved that Mokuba was a friendly, sweet, kind-hearted kid. The kind he himself had forgotten how to be. He had no idea how Mokuba still managed to keep that part of him alive after all they went through, but if he could protect that part of his brother, he would. </p><p>"You're just the right amount of menacing," Mokuba said quietly. </p><p>Kaiba smirked, his brother could turn his worst qualities into compliments: “Hmm... how about these doughnuts then?"</p><p>Mokuba smiled at that so Kaiba decided it had been a right thing to say. They sat munching doughnuts as Kaiba thought about how the nurses would surely yell at him later. He had eaten nothing but sugary sweets and drinks for the past 24 hours and he was not in a mood to change that either. He was pretty sure his skin was going to break out horribly sooner or later, but he didn't care for the time being. </p><p>"Did you sleep at all?" Mokuba asked. </p><p>"Some," Kaiba said vaguely. Two hours surely counted as "some sleep", right? "How did your experiment go? Overwriting one horror with another?"</p><p>"I dreamt of zombies stabbing you. It sounds funny when you say it out loud, but it wasn't..." </p><p>"Dreams are like that. Not a raging success then I take it?" </p><p>"Nope. Did you dream of anything?"</p><p>Kaiba hummed noncommittally, but Mokuba could read into the tiniest noises his brother made: “What about?"</p><p>"Are you looking for new nightmare fuel?" He would take zombies stabbing him every night happily. </p><p>Mokuba conceded that wasn't perhaps the best idea. He reached out and ran his hands through his brother's mess of a hair. Seto nearly flinched at the unexpected contact: “I'm fine, Mokuba. Don't worry."</p><p>"Your hair is a mess. You don't have a comb, do you?"</p><p>"No," Seto said, running his hand through his hair to tame it, looking at Mokuba to gauge from his expression whether or not he was doing a good job: “No point in asking of you have one. I'm surprised you know what a comb is." </p><p>"Hey! I comb my hair. I just don't cut it very often."</p><p>"At all," Seto corrected fondly. After a pause, during which Mokuba crossed his arms and pretended to sulk, he asked: “Are you planning on staying at Yugi's for tonight?" He wondered if it would cause him issues if Mokuba didn't. Not that he wouldn't be able to handle it. Mokuba could stay wherever he wanted. Plus as far as he was concerned he's still be safer in the mansion that he was anywhere else.</p><p>"If he's fine with it," Mokuba said, quietly, clearly becoming a bit embarrassed of his earlier outburst. </p><p>Kaiba scoffed: “I kidnapped his grandfather and he still wants to be my friend. You giving Jounouchi a much needed shower will not change his mind." </p><p>Mokuba smiled at that and nodded: “Yeah. He's nice like that."</p><p>Kaiba chose not to acknowledge that comment: “You should go if you don't want to be late for school."</p><p>"Okay," Mokuba agreed, he stood and wrapped his arms around his brother's neck loosely: “I'll go to headquarters after school and then I'll come see you again, so if you want anything text me. Or send me an e-mail."</p><p>"Done. We need new security staff. I've looked through some CVs. Would you mind doing the interviews? Seeing as you fired them." He wouldn't trust a third party to conduct them. There were the people responsible for his personal safety, and more importantly, Mokuba's. His little brother had seen enough recruitments to know how it's done and what to look out for.</p><p>"Sure," Mokuba agreed brightly. </p><p>Anzu, Yugi and Jounouchi were all very happy to see Mokuba was still in the classroom. He was packing his stuff in a suitcase very similar to the one his older brother had, clearly ready to leave, but he was still there. </p><p>"Mokuba-kun!" Anzu called: “Jounouchi has something to say to you."</p><p>"Oh, come on Anzu, we're not six years old." </p><p>Mokuba smiled: “If it's what I think it is, it's fine. Really. I shouldn't have blown up like that."</p><p>"Hey, man. I get it. I really do get it," Jounouchi said: “My old man - he's a jerk. A massive good for nothing drunkard of a jerk. If someone compared me or my sister to him in any way, I'd blow up too. Big time. So I really do get it."</p><p>Mokuba smiled and nodded: “Yeah, but well, everyone has their hardships. It's no reason to be mean to people."</p><p>Jounouchi stared at Mokuba: “Are you sure you and Kaiba are related?" The younger boy was ridiculously emotionally mature in comparison to his brother. </p><p>Mokuba rolled his eyes: “We're not that different. At heart we're very much alike. We just express ourselves very differently, but we feel the same way about many things. We want the same things. You just don't see it, because you don't know him the way I do." He was finished putting away his pencils and was now trying to find a book between which to store his drawing, but the all of the books were too small and if he shoved the drawing between them with the edges out, he worried it might get crinkled. </p><p>Anzu stepped closer to see what was on this precious piece of paper that Mokuba was so careful to store properly. Her mouth fell open in disbelief: "Mokuba-kun this is amazing," she breathed.</p><p>Mokuba blushed and scratched the back of his head: “I just like drawing... Always have." </p><p>"That is Blue Eyes in the flesh!" Anzu insisted. </p><p>"I've drawn him a lot so I've gotten better." By this point Yugi and Jounouchi had also gathered to see the drawing, all of them oohing and awwing. </p><p>"Mokuba-kun is so talented!" Yugi agreed: “The Blue Eyes is so detailed and Kaiba-kun looks great too."</p><p>"I was thinking I'll take it to my brother to the hospital and maybe he will feel better," the younger boy admitted shyly. </p><p>"He better! I sure would if someone drew me such amazing art of my favourite Duel Monster!" Jounouchi agreed: “You're really talented, Mokuba. Anyone looking at this would think it was drawn by a professional artist. I mean you even sort of manage to make Kaiba look <em>friendly</em> and <em>happy</em>. That's bound to be some black magic right there."</p><p>Anzu sighed: “Jounouchi, what did we <em>just</em> say to you before we came in?" </p><p>"It's okay," Mokuba said: “I know Nii-sama doesn't usually look too happy, but I like drawing him like that. Maybe if I keep drawing him..." Mokuba shook his head. He knew he was being silly: “Anyway, I know Nii-sama likes my art too. He even sometimes lets me do box arts for the newest Kaiba Corporation products. So I thought this might cheer him up."</p><p>Anzu was spacing out slightly, looking at Mokuba sadly, but if anyone noticed they said nothing. <em>Poor Mokuba </em>she thought. <em>He's even younger than us and he already has so many responsibilities. So much weight on his shoulders. I wonder if someday he'll become like Kaiba too?</em></p><p>Mokuba had finally found a binder big enough for his incredibly intricate pencil sketch and he packed the drawing away into his suitcase: “Is it okay with you, Yugi, if I come over to yours again tonight?" </p><p>Yugi nodded: “Sure! Anzu and Jounouchi are coming too. It will be fun! And we agreed - no more horror films."</p><p>Mokuba smiled: “I was fine with them. It was more Nii-sama getting stabbed that scared me."</p><p>"Okay," Yugi agreed: “We're headed there now."</p><p>"Is there anything particular you want for dinner?" </p><p>"Can we make the potato chip fries sandwich again?" Mokuba asked hopefully.</p><p>"Sure thing!" Jounouchi agreed, equally enthusiastic. </p><p>"Kaiba is going to think we're actively trying to kill you," Anzu thought. </p><p>"I won't tell him," Mokuba promised: “I can keep a secret!"</p><p>"I still think we need to eat something healthy too," Anzu argued, finding that she felt the sudden urge to take care of the boy. With Kaiba in hospital Mokuba had no real family to go to. It must have been really lonely. </p><p>It was decided that they would try to make yakisoba and if that didn't go as well, they would default back to the ramen. It had been such a big hit the night before that there hadn't been any left for them to take back to Kaiba, despite both Shizuka and Anzu having been sure they had made too much. </p><p>Mokuba went down the the headquarters, feeling slightly on the edge. He found that part of him was afraid the whole building was up in flames with his brother away. Another part of him wondered if the staff would question his authority now that his brother wasn't by his side to back him up. A completely irrational fear as Mokuba visited and did things at Kaiba Corporation without Seto all the time. Kaiba Corp was their kingdom, their own world where they ruled and it was their way or the highway. Even if the rest of the world would see them as a couple of rich kids, here they were respected and ... cared for too, Mokuba thought. Many of the employees at least not only seemed to respect him and Nii-sama, but like him too. That was almost never the case outside of the company (at least when it came to Seto) so Mokuba really enjoyed his trips to the headquarters. </p><p>Therefore it really wasn't that surprising that Mokuba lost track of time at work and then when he finally looked at the clock in Seto's office it was nearly six: “Shit, shit shit!" Mokuba cursed, under his breath, a bad habit, he had gotten back in America. The Japanese language didn't really have satisfying swear words like shit and fuck like the English language did. Not that he would ever use the f-word again. Not after the lecture Nii-sama had given him when he had slipped up one time while they were at the office together. Thankfully it had just been the two of them in the room. Mokuba had no idea how angry Kaiba might have been if he had messed up like that while in the presence of a client or a colleague. </p><p>Mokuba just made it into his brother's room 10 minutes before the visiting hours were over. He was a little disappointed to find that his brother was asleep, but seeing as Kaiba clearly hadn't gotten much sleep the night before Mokuba made no effort to wake him. In fact he was deliberately quiet as he took his drawing out of his briefcase: “I made you this," he said quietly. "Thought it might make you feel better."</p><p>Dr. Akari Yamato was having a bad week. Her husband had just recently filed for a divorce and seemed dead set on turning the children against her too. As far as her husband was concerned the fact that their family was falling apart was all her fault. Couldn't she just be a stay at home like other women? Just be a mother? Why did she have to be so ambitious, becoming a doctor and spending all her time at work? It didn't suit a woman. It wasn't right. Dr. Yamato had just wanted to make a difference, had wanted to save lives and here she was now, depressed and miserable and still making less money than her paper-pusher husband taking care of stupid ungrateful rich spoilt brats like that Seto Kaiba. He was honestly the worst patient she had ever had. She had treated murderers and thieves kinder and more compassionate. Not that Seto Kaiba wasn't a thief, he probably was. How else could he have he made that much money at 17? It wasn't hard work and wits, for sure. What wits could a 17 year-old teen have? Yamato had a 17 year old son. The boy couldn't work a rice cooker to save his live and probably still thought that his dirty socks somehow magically washed themselves. She walked by the bastard's room and saw his little brother, Mokuba Kaiba, sitting there, watching his brother sleep. The sight filled her with rage. Why could Seto Kaiba, a rich, entitled, jerk of an arsehole, who ignored all the rules and treated all of the staff like he owned them, have this child love and care for him and look at him with such open adoration? He didn't deserve love. He probably treated the kid terribly too. As far as Dr. Yamato was concerned Mokuba would be far better off in an orphanage somewhere, far away from the toxic brother's influence. They had tried to take Mokuba away once before, but his hateful older brother had pulled some strings and now the kid was staying with some weird old man and his spiky-haired kid she vaguely remembered seeing from one of her her daughter's celebrity magazines. He was a gamer or something equally stupid like that. Something that wasn't a real sport and was a real career even less. Some passing children's fad. Dueling, was it? </p><p>Beyond irritated Dr. Yamato stepped into Seto Kaiba's room."Hey, kid!" she barked: “Visiting hours are over." </p><p>Mokuba looked over to her sadly, jumped down from her seat and took his suitcase: "Sleep well, Nii-sama. I'll come and see you again tomorrow," he promised and running his hand through Seto's hair lightly. The man hummed in response, but didn't actually wake. </p><p>Somehow the fact that the arsehole could sleep so calmly made Dr. Yamato even angrier: “Come on, kid. We don't run a daycare here," she snapped. </p><p>There was a change in the small boy. He set his suitcase down and looked at Dr. Yamato with cold hard eyes: "I'm not some <em>kid</em>. I'm the Vice President of the Kaiba Corporation. One of the most powerful richest corporations in Japan. So don't patronize me."</p><p>"How <em>cute</em>," Akari sneered. </p><p>"Whatever. Nii-sama and I make more money in a month than you see in your entire life," Mokuba snapped back. Why was this nurse so terrible to him? </p><p>"Yeah. Of course I'm no one compared to you," Dr. Yamato agreed sarcastically: “Just the person on whom it depends on whether your brother lives or dies." </p><p>Mokuba froze at that and stared into the nurse's eyes, looking terrified. </p><p>"Yeah. So I wouldn't be so smug if I were you," Akari added. "Scared now, aren't you?" </p><p>Mokuba swallowed and then screamed: “<em>Isono</em>!" </p><p>His scream made Seto jump awake with a jolt: “Hm?"</p><p>Isono burst into the room the next second: “What is it Mokuba-sama?!"</p><p>"I want my brother to be transferred to a different hospital. Right. <em>Now</em>."</p><p>Dr. Yamato sneered: “You can't do that. You don't call the -" </p><p>"Right away, sir," said Isono, much to Dr. Yamato's utter shock.</p><p>"Mokuba, do you mind telling me what's going on here?" Kaiba asked, looking fully awake now. </p><p>"This woman threatened to kill you," Mokuba said, pointing fingers at Dr. Yamato. </p><p>Kaiba looked over to her, disinterested: “Don't worry. I'm sure she's not clever enough to pull that off. That being said, these are some serious threats. Should we get our lawyers on the phone?"</p><p>"<em>Yes!" </em>Mokuba agreed. </p><p>"You can't do that!" Dr. Yamato cried, but she sounded awfully unsure of herself now. </p><p>By the time Mokuba left the hospital there were 6 bodyguards now standing inside Kaiba's room, keenly looking at every move the doctors made. It made Kaiba feel a bit exposed, but his brother's peace of mind was more important to him than his own personal comfort or feelings of privacy. It had taken some convincing his little bother that this was fine, as it was and that they did not have to take him to another hospital. Mokuba went over to Yugi's again and the place was just as heavily guarded as the night before. They barely had minimum security staff left at the HQ, but neither of them cared for the moment. Kaiba decided that he would get himself discharged the next morning no matter what. This was exhausting. He would be able to rest better at home, where Mokuba was with him and he didn't have to worry about him all the time. Or Mokuba about him. He wasn't stupid. He knew that his brother worried about him as much as he did.</p><hr/><p>The next morning was a sunny one, but despite the rays of sun peaking into Yugi's living room, where he and Mokuba and all their friends had decided to sleep again, it was not the rays of sunshine that woke them, far earlier than they would have liked. It was Suguroku Mutou, who was barging into the room with some urgent news: “Yugi-kun! It's a miracle!" </p><p>Everyone reacted by hiding their faces deeper into their pillows or trying to hide inside their sleeping bags, pretending they were still asleep.</p><p>"It better be a real miracle if you're waking us up this early!" Jounouchi complained. </p><p>"It's half past 9. It's not my fault you children stay up all night watching recordings of old Duel Monsters tournaments. Don't you have school?" </p><p>They had all decided to watch Kaiba's older duels from before he had met Yugi. Partly because they thought it would cheer Mokuba up seeing his brother (even just on video) and partly because it was interesting to see. Yugi had found especially interesting. He hasn't realized how much Kaiba's playing style had evolved in time. </p><p>"What's the miracle then, grandpa?" Yugi asked sleepily, his eyes still closed. </p><p>"Someone has paid off all of the Kame Game shop loans and debts!" </p><p>Yugi opened his eyes: “I didn't know we had debts."</p><p>"Oh, I don't want you to worry. Besides, companies have loans. It's completely normal. It was nothing too serious to worry about."</p><p>"So there wasn't that much of a debt?"</p><p>"No. Well, roughly 3 million yen altogether with everything." </p><p>"3 <em>million?!" </em>Yugi cried: “And someone paid off all that?"</p><p>"Yes. Came from an anonymous off-shore Swiss account."</p><p>Yugi hummed: “That sounds sketchy. You should send it back." </p><p>"It wasn't even sent to me. Whoever it was just paid off the various debts we had." </p><p>"Why would anyone do that?</p><p>Mokuba groaned and sat up: “Why indeed. For the record 3 million yen is peanuts. I'm going to wash my teeth," he announced getting up.</p><p>"For you and Kaiba maybe!" Jounouchi argued. </p><p>"It was Kaiba-kun, wasn't it?" Yugi called after Mokuba: “He feels bad that he had to take our help!"</p><p>"Yup!" Mokuba called back.</p><p>"He really shouldn't. Mokuba-kun is such a nice kid. He's better behaved than some of your other friends," Suguroku said, glancing at Jounouchi, who was not happy with that comment. </p><p>"Hey!"</p><p>"Of course we'd help him," Yugi agreed: "He's our friend and even if he wasn't, we wouldn't have let them take him away somewhere." </p><p>After that the topics took a lighter turn, mainly to what they should all have for breakfast.</p><p>Their little gang was just having breakfast in the kitchen, when Seto Kaiba walked into from the front door. He had considered asking someone from the staff to go and get Mokuba as he really wasn't in the mood for Yugi and his friends. He had taken enough Vicodin to numb a horse, so pain in itself was not the problem, but he just felt exhausted. Just walking inside seemed to drain his energy reserves, but trying to look confident and menacing completely dried them out. He was wearing his signature white coat and holding on to his suitcase. The whole get up just made him look more powerful and business-like, gave him strength that he felt he was lacking. </p><p>Kaiba pushed the store door open and was dismayed to find Yugi's grandfather at the counter: “Good morning. How may I - Kaiba-kun! We all thought you were still in hospital! So glad to see you're doing better!" </p><p>Kaiba just froze and stared at the old man. He wasn't sure what kind of a welcome he had expected, but warm was not it. Was it because he had paid off their loans? But he had made sure to stay anonymous, so surely they didn't know the money had come from him. Was the Mutou family simply not capable of holding a grudge?: “I came to take Mokuba," Kaiba announced, as if his brother was a parcel to be handed over. </p><p>"Oh, they're having breakfast in the back. You knew they wouldn't be going to school?"</p><p>"Hmm. Texted my staff."</p><p>"Oh yes, don't think we've ever been this well secured," Yugi's grandfather laughed. </p><p>Kaiba wanted to die. He sucked at small talk at the best of times and right now he was stuck making small talk with a man he had once kidnapped and whose most precious card he had destroyed. It was beyond awkward. Not to mention the fact that he was feeling tired and weak to say the least. He wanted to sit. No, he wanted to take Mokuba and go home.</p><p>"<em>Mokuba! Let's go!</em>" Kaiba roared. He should have texted him he was coming. Sure, he knew this would be a nice surprise, but he was beginning to care less and less. </p><p>"Oh, don't shout. Just go through here and you'll find the kitchen easy enough," the old man said, gesturing towards a door behind the counter. </p><p>Kaiba huffed in annoyance and made his way to the back. He just wanted to go home already. </p><p>The kitchen table was covered in plates, mugs and... papers? Kaiba quirked an eyebrow as he watched Yugi hand his brother a small receipt: “How is a 200 yen Cup a Noodle a business expense?"</p><p>"Ate it during a lunch break?" Yugi offered uncertainly. </p><p>"Are you doing the taxes for Yugi's grandfather's shop?" Seto asked dryly. </p><p>"Yes I thought -" Mokuba paused, looked up and in the next second he all but assaulted Kaiba: “<em>Nii-sama! </em>I didn't know you were coming today!" </p><p>Kaiba felt a tiny smile play on his lips: “Got fed up with the hospital. Come on. Let's go home."</p><p>"Okay. I need to pack," Mokuba said: “I'll be quick," he said, ready to rush off, before he saw his brother holding a briefcase: “Hey! You're not supposed to be lifting things!" he protested ready to take Seto's briefcase away from him. </p><p>"It's light," Kaiba argued, brushing his hand away lightly. The briefcase was what was holding him together, making him feel confident. "I'm fine. Go pack. I want to go home," he ordered. </p><p>Mokuba nodded happily and rushed off, while Yugi insisted that Kaiba should sit down while he waited. He took up the offer, Kaiba fell into the seat with far less grace than he would have liked. Glad to be off his feet, even if the stool he was sitting on wasn't the most comfortable thing ever. </p><p>"Would you like coffee?" Yugi asked. </p><p>"Mmm." Kaiba hummed noncommittally, praying none of Yugi's friends wanted to have small talk. He wasn't up for small talk. He was tempted to rest his head on the table and sleep. </p><p>"Are you sure you're okay going home? You look a bit gray," Kaiba heard someone ask. He looked up and and saw Anzu's concerned face: “I'm fine," Kaiba muttered without much enthusiasm, praying for Mokuba to pack quick. </p><p>"Would you like something to eat? We made ramen again. Mokuba wanted to bring you some last time, but <em>someone</em> ate it all."</p><p>Kaiba looked over over to see Jounouchi and Yugi both looking guilty. He figured he'd actually like something proper to eat after two days of surviving on Dr. Peppers and chocolates. Yes, there had been food in the hospital, but Kaiba had stubbornly refused to eat any of it. He was beneath eating things that tasted like cardboard. And how could they make cooked rice taste like a lump of goo?</p><p>He had said nothing, but Anzu had taken his silence as agreement: "I just heated it up anyways, so it's no trouble. We were all having it as breakfast again."</p><p>"Ramen's not breakfast," Kaiba argued weakly, but gladly took the pair of chopsticks and the bowl of ramen he was given. It smelled divine if he was being honest, making his stomach grumble. Hopefully no one heard that. </p><p>Mokuba re-entered the room a moment later, with his haphazardly packed bags. All of his clothes would be wrinkled later: “I'm ready!" he cried brightly and Kaiba tried to decide if he wanted to get up and go home more than he wanted to eat. Thankfully, he didn't have to decide, because Mokuba said: “<em>Oh</em>, can I finish eating too if you're eating?"</p><p>Kaiba made another vague noise that his brother knew to interpret as affirmative. </p><p>"Great!" Mokuba beamed, apparently always ready to go with whatever plan his brother had and Kaiba watched his brother slurp noodles happily. </p><p>He took some noodles as well, trying to eat them with more dignity than his little brother did. They were nice. Firm still despite the whole being reheated. There was something familiar about this, but Kaiba couldn't put his finger on it. He tilted the bowl slightly to taste broth and was hit with a wave of nostalgia. He had eaten this before. But - how? Hadn't Anzu made this?</p><p>"Did you make this?!" Kaiba asked Anzu, suddenly his alert and sharp self once more.</p><p>"Y-yes," Anzu replied, looking a bit startled: “With Mokuba and Yugi. It's Shizuka's recipe."</p><p>"You made it from scratch?" Kaiba pressed. </p><p>"Yes. What is it?"</p><p>"Nothing. It just tastes like I've had it before. Can't remember where," Kaiba said and took another swig of the broth, trying to place it together.</p><p>"Do you like it, Nii-sama?" Mokuba asked hopefully. </p><p>"Hmm. It's great." Kaiba admitted, slurping on some more noodles. This was really bothering him. He knew he had eaten a ramen just like this before. But where? And why did it matter to him anyway?</p><p>He heard Yugi and his friends cheer: “Wow, I think this is the first time I've ever gotten a compliment from Kaiba!" Anzu said happily, but Kaiba was still focused on the ramen. It hit him like a ton of bricks. Suddenly, he was standing in a small kitchen, one he thought he had long forgotten. Sun was shining through the clear window and there was a small blue table. A woman with dark brown hair was standing next to the stove, cooking, smiling lightly to herself. She took a spoonful of broth and blew on it, lightly, before kneeling down and offering it to him: “What do you think, Seto? Do you like it?" she asked in a kind, soft, caring voice. She had big bright eyes as she stared at her son, no more than four years of age. </p><p>"Mmm! It's delicious, Okaa-san!" he heard his bright young self exclaim as his mother ruffled his hair lovingly.</p><p>His mother. That's where he remembered these tastes from. This ramen tasted exactly like his mother had made it. How did he even remember this? It had been ages since he even thought about his mother. He had actively done everything to shove these memories far far into the furthest corners of his mind. How were they still alive?! Why were they still alive?! He didn't want them! He just wanted to go home with his little bother and fall face first to his mattress. He wanted to <em>sleep</em>. He was so <em>tired</em> of constantly fighting and proving himself! He just wanted go home! He wanted... he wanted his mum. Damn. This was weak. What was he thinking? His mother was dead. It was no use thinking about her. </p><p>"Guys, is Kaiba-kun crying?" Yugi asked carefully. </p><p>"<em>Nii-sama</em>!" Kaiba heard Mokuba cry. He looked up, but all he could see was a blur. He had no idea when ha started crying, but there were now tears streaming down his face freely. </p><p>"No way! He totally is!" Jounouchi exclaimed. </p><p>Mokuba got up from his seat and ran over to his brother: “<em>Nii-sama</em>! What's wrong?!" Something had to be hurting like hell if Seto was crying about it. Seto never cried. Not with people around. </p><p>Kaiba felt the world tilt and a moment later he was slipping into darkness. There was a flash of light. Someone's arm caught him, holding him, before he could hit the floor. The arms holding him were strong. Not Mokuba then. But the embrace was still caring.  Kaiba wanted to melt into that embrace: “Okaa-san..." he muttered. Silence. Darkness. Nothing. </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I wasn't originally going to end it there, but then some force of evil possessed me and I thought this would be a good cliffhanger. </p><p>I added an extra chapter to the count, because I feel like there's quite a lot of story left and I don't think I could cram it all in the next chapter. </p><p>We don't get that much info on Jounouchi's father in the anime canon, so I decided to go with the manga canon. I don't like mixing the two too much, but it seemed to work here. </p><p>I know Mokuba had a few arsehole moments in this too, but I think he could be an arsehole too when pushed to his limits. What do you think?</p><p>Comments are welcomed. Like insanely so.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Peace and Fire</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Yugi had kept one eye on Kaiba ever since he walked in. The man had looked even paler than usual and his complexion had taken a slight grey hue to it. Of course no one dared to say anything and Yugi understood Kaiba's desire to get out of the hospital and get home to be with his small family, but he worried. And it was due to that worry that he was the first to notice when Kaiba suddenly became dazed, and then, fully contradicting everything Yugi knew about the man, he started crying. Given, not loudly, but there were certainly tears running down his face while he stared at nothing in particular. Was he in pain? Was he having a vision of some sort? Yugi knew Kaiba also sometimes had visions like he did, but what could trigger a vision while eating ramen in his kitchen?</p><p>Yugi decided it was time to alert the rest of his gang that something was wrong: "Guys, is Kaiba-kun crying?"</p><p>Mokuba was the first to react to Yugi's comment, turning to look up from his noodles at his brother and call out to him. Yugi could hear the worry and fear in his voice even without looking. Kaiba did react. He looked over to Mokuba's general direction, but his gaze looked oddly vacant, he blinked, causing some more tears to fall from his lashes to his cheeks.</p><p>"No way! He totally is!" Yugi heard Jounouchi comment as he watched Kaiba's fingers lose their grip on the ramen bowl. Yugi could see that at the next moment Kaiba himself was going to fall as well. The stool he was sitting on had no back, so if Kaiba was going to faint and he looked like he was, he would just fall to the ground. </p><p>Mokuba could see it too and he was already up and ready to rush over, but Yugi knew Mokuba wasn't strong enough to catch his bother's full weight:“<em>Nii-sama</em>! What's wrong?!" Mokuba cried, reaching out for him, despite also probably knowing he wasn't strong enough. Yugi wasn't strong enough either and that thought seemed to occur both to him and his Other Self at the same time, because he could feel him push past him with rather a lot more determination than he was used to these days and then his other self was in control, catching Kaiba in his strong arms just before he hit the ground. </p><p>"Kaiba..." The Pharaoh said and he sounded worried too. Kaiba was still conscious, his bright blue eyes were filled with the sort of pain that, if he felt, he never usually showed and that caught both of the two men sharing this body, off guard.</p><p>Kaiba was looking at the Pharaoh, although whether he saw his rival, the Pharaoh doubted and then the most unexpected thing happened. Kaiba spoke, but the word was something none of them would have expected him say in a million years.</p><p>The room was dead silent. Kaiba went limp in his rival's arms and there was silence still. </p><p>"Did Kaiba just call Yugi his mother?" Jounouchi asked. First to spoke.</p><p>Yugi and his other self were having a conversation only the two of them could hear. </p><p>
  <em>I'm sorry I pushed for control like that without asking. I felt - </em>
</p><p>
  <em>It's fine. I had the same thought. I wouldn't have caught him myself.</em>
</p><p>The soul of the Pharaoh smiled at the transparent figure of Yugi besides him and they nodded to each other. Yugi's other self turned back to the scene at hand. Mokuba was methodically checking over his brother, first checking his breathing, then his pulse, then pulling up his shirt, practically ripping it, to look at the state of his stab would. </p><p>Meanwhile his greatest rival gently brushed his hair aside and put one palm on his forehead and other on his own:"I don't think he's feverish. Shouldn't be infection then. He probably just pushed himself too hard," he said, only just thinking that Mokuba was taking this very well, when he saw Mokuba lace his small fingers with his brother's delicate long ones and started crying:"Nii-sama.... open your eyes..."</p><p>"He just fainted. He'll be okay," Yugi's other self tried to reassure, thinking that his partner would be better at this comforting business.</p><p>"Let's take him somewhere where he will be more comfortable, shall we?" he offered, gently gathering Kaiba in his arms, before standing up and carrying him to the living room sofa. It was a bit awkward with Kaiba being so much taller than him still, but he did his best being very gentle, especially considering how Mokuba was watching his every move like a hawk.</p><p>Once Kaiba had a fluffy pillow under his head and thin soft blanket thrown over him, Mokuba and Other Yugi sat to watch over him, although the Pharaoh was mostly looking over Mokuba, who looked more distraught by the minute. Anzu brought a glass of water from the kitchen, for no apparent reason other than the fact she wanted to do something. She ran her hand through Mokuba's hair, but Mokuba brushed her off. No comments were made. Mokuba had stopped verbally begging for Seto to wake, but anyone looking at him, could tell she was still pleading for him to, in his mind.</p><p>"You and Kaiba can both stay here for a few days," The Pharaoh offered, knowing Yugi wouldn't mind.</p><p>Mokuba snorted bitterly: "Unless he's too weak to stand he'll never accept."</p><p>The other man sighed:"Just because he's my rival in duels, doesn't mean we can't treat each other nicely the rest of the time."</p><p>"He just doesn't like being dependent," Mokuba said, squeezing his brother's hand, he had not let go of it since the man had been laid down. Kaiba squeezed back and a careful smile tugged at Mokuba's lips that turned into a full on relieved grin as his brother's eyes fluttered open:"<em>Nii-sama</em>!"</p><p>Kaiba's head lulled to his side and he was met with Other Yugi's gaze. Neither of them seemed quite sure what to do with that, so the Pharaoh smiled sheepishly:"Kaiba..." he said, hoping Kaiba wouldn't call him mother again. He seemed back to himself.</p><p>"Hmm?"</p><p>Mokuba, fluent in Kaiba's hums and grunts, replied to the question that hadn't really been voiced:"You collapsed. Fainted." He said, tactfully leaving out the rest. </p><p>Jounouchi was less tactful:"You fell into Yugi's arms and called him mother." </p><p>Kaiba's face went bright red in embarrassment and he stood up so fast that the world around him started to spin and he fell to his knees instantly. His rival was there to catch him, only adding to his already great embarrassment. He brushed the other man off and got to his feet again:"Kaiba! You need to take it easy. You <em>just</em> got out of the hospital."</p><p>"I'm fine. Mokuba, we're going home. Where's my suitcase?!" he demanded, still red-faced.</p><p>Mokuba clearly had mixed feeling about the plan:"Nii-sama..."</p><p>"I'm going. <em>Now." </em>Kaiba marched back into the kitchen, got his suitcase and then strode to leave. Mokuba knew when he was beaten and he would much rather follow his brother and keep an eye on him than let him go alone. He pulled the suitcase out of his big brother's hand, unwilling to let him do anything else that might worsen the state of his health, like carrying heavy objects, Mokuba was momentarily caught off guard. The case felt - so light. Was it empty? Not wasting any more time on that mystery Mokuba ran to get his own bag, before sprinting after Seto. Yugi and Anzu were following too, clearly also worried. </p><p>"Kaiba-kun! You should rest!" Anzu insisted, but her advice fell on deaf ears. Kaiba strode through the little game shop towards his car parked outside, determined as ever, if still looking embarrassed and more than a bit red.</p><p>Mokuba was already falling behind, but he paused in front of the counter and bowed slightly, addressing Yugi and his grandfather:"Thank you for helping me and my brother!" he said, the end of his sentence highlighted by the slamming of the shop door. He needed to hurry if he didn't want Kaiba to leave without him. </p><p>Seto was already in the car, shouting at his driver:"<em>Drive</em>!"</p><p>"Aren't we waiting for Mokuba-sama?"</p><p>The said boy was running towards the car as fast as he could. Kaiba waited, of course, but as soon as Mokuba had gotten his seatbelt on, he yelled at the driver to get going again. Kaiba spent the ride pointedly staring out of the window. Mokuba spent it  looking at his brother.</p><p>"Stop. I'm <em>fine</em>." Kaiba said eventually, not turning his gaze away from the window. Mokuba said nothing for a while. Eventually his curiosity got the better of him and he started to wonder again if Kaiba's suitcase was actually empty. It had felt so light, there couldn't be much of anything inside. He picked up the silver case and unlocked it, noticing his brother glance over briefly. It was empty save for one piece of paper. Mokuba unfolded it to find the drawing he had left for Seto at the hospital. His brother was still not looking at him, staring out of the window. Neither of said anything. They didn't need words for things like this.They knew, they understood. Seto didn't do long friendship speeches, but sometimes he did things like this and Mokuba thought that meant more. The younger brother put his drawing back in the case, closed it and snuggled close to his brother before leaning against him. It somehow made Kaiba relax too and he even put one arm around his brother, stroking his shoulder with his thumb. </p><p>Mokuba dozed off against his brother's shoulder, Seto also felt tired, but he still felt much too embarrassed to even think of sleep. He nudged Mokuba lightly as they arrived, knowing he'd never hear the end of it if he attempted to carry him.</p><p>His younger brother... hovered. There was no other word for it. He followed Seto and watched his every move, ready to rush to him at the slightest hint of faintness. </p><p>"Mokuba, stop. You're being ridiculous. I'm fine. I'm going to shower and then I'll have a nap. You can stop this needless hovering. It's infuriating."</p><p>Mokuba ignored his brother's curt clipped orders, instead he took his laptop and sat on Seto's bed, pretending to have something very important to do. He heard his bother sigh and leave, then listened to the sounds of him showering closely, worried that he might collapse in the shower, but praying he didn't. He had no idea what he would do if he would. He was not strong enough to carry his brother on his own. Thankfully, his worries were needless, as Seto returned soon enough, dressed in his silk pajamas and climbed to bed. It spoke something of his brother's health that he didn't even try to pretend he was fine and needed to work. It made Mokuba worry more, but he was also glad. There was a sense of ease and peace he felt now that his brother was home, regardless of how poor his health. Mokuba set to do some actual work, someone had to run the company, even if, if he was honest, Kaiba Corp was a machine so well-oiled that it could perfectly function for weeks without either of them lifting a finger. Maybe they were both control freaks. </p><p>Kaiba watched over Mokuba's shoulder, his wet hair dripping on his brother a bit, but neither minded:"I read your official press release comments," Seto said. </p><p>"Were they okay?"</p><p>"Perfectly done," his elder brother confessed. </p><p>Mokuba smiled a tiniest bit, his brother's praise was not as rare as others might have thought, but it did not come in heaps either. It certainly gave him the motivation to finish the rather boring accounts he was doing. He felt Seto watch him, but it never bothered him, his brother was there for his silent company rather than for giving criticisms. </p><p>Kaiba thought he had only dozed off for a moment, but when he opened his eyes again, Mokuba was playing Sonic on one of his portable gaming consoles. Seto set to watch him gather the golden rings expertly, feeling too lazy (certainly not weak, no, that would be unacceptable) to do anything. </p><p>"Can I get you anything?" Mokuba asked, his eyes never leaving his game, yet somehow he was aware that his brother was awake. </p><p>"No," Kaiba said, although his voice sounded hoarse and his throat was dry. He could get himself a glass of water. Once he felt like getting up. Mokuba finished the level and got up to bring him one, before he could. Then he settled back to playing: "Are you hungry at all?"</p><p>"No." He wasn't particularly so:"What time it is?"</p><p>"Half past eight?"</p><p>"In the <em>evening?!"</em></p><p>"Yes."</p><p>"I've slept the entire <em>day?"</em></p><p>Mokuba smiled at how affronted he sounded:"Yes, Nii-sama. For a genius you are awfully slow," he teased.</p><p>"Have you been here all day?"</p><p>"I got loads of work done. You should be proud," Mokuba said brightly. </p><p>"Never said I wasn't."</p><p>Mokuba got up:"I'm getting food."</p><p>Kaiba wondered if he had at least eaten. Surely, he had. Right.</p><p>Mokuba had not. He had been too busy with work, worry and well... not feeling particularly hungry. He was hungry now however and was making his way to their kitchen to see what food there was. Much to their horror, there wasn't any. The chef had left for the day, if she had ever been there at all. Not that Mokuba liked her cooking, but it was better than nothing at all. Some enquires from the rest of the staff later, it turned out that their chef was on a <em>holiday in Spain</em> and that no one had had bothered to find someone to replace her during her absence. Mokuba scoffed at the ridiculousness of the situation. Still, it was no grand matter. Most people didn't have a chef. He was a Vice President of a multi-billion company. Surely, he could cook a dinner for his elder brother. </p><p>Yugi texted Mokuba whilst the latter was busy frying the pasta.</p><p>
  <em>Are you and Kaiba-kun okay? You left in such a hurry, we were worried. If you need anything at all, tell us. Okay?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Hi, Yugi. We're fine. I'm here trying to make dinner for Nii-sama. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>I thought you had a chef?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>She's in Spain. I know it's weird we only have one, but neither of us eats that much at home and we don't entertain guests that much. There's more kitchen staff when we are. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Not at all what I was thinking, but okay. Shall I give you Anzu's number? I'm sure she'd come over to help. I can cook a few things too. As can my Other Self. How he has cooking skills when all other knowledge of his life is unavailable to him, I do not know, but the man can cook. </em>
</p><p><em>You'd think a Pharaoh wouldn't cook himself anyway? I'm fine. I can do this. </em>Mokuba texted before looking up at his handiwork. Oh. Maybe he couldn't. <em><br/></em></p><p>
  <em>Yugi. What do I do when the pan is on fire?</em>
</p><p>Mokuba crabbed the nearest kitchen towel to smother the flames, however the towel was too small and the flames simply started burning the towel, which Mokuba then anxiously dropped and watched in alarm as it continued to burn on the floor with a rather impressive flame. He was just trying to remember if they had a fire extinguisher somewhere when the fire alarm went off. </p><p>Kaiba had been dozing once again, but the fire alarm woke him, he was up and in the kitchen at the speed of light, greeted by the horrifying sight of his little brother standing before a burning kitchen:"Mokuba!" He began by pulling his brother away from the flames. The burning kitchen towel was easy enough to smother, but he needed to use an actual fire extinguisher for the pan, which was, at that point, resembling a proper campfire.  Only once he had put the whole thing out did he turn to his little brother. </p><p>"<em>What in the name of Blue Eyes White Dragon are you doing</em>?!" he shouted. </p><p>Yugi was calling Mokuba now. Mokuba ended the call and texted him back. <em>It's fine now. Seto saved me.</em></p><p>The said saviour had now ripped the phone out of Mokuba's hand and threw it hard on the kitchen floor: "Don't text while I'm talking to you! What were you thinking burning the kitchen down?!"</p><p>"I was trying to make dinner!" Mokuba yelled back.</p><p>"Why didn't you ask the chef?!"</p><p>"She's on holiday."</p><p>That caught Seto off guard for a moment:"What?"</p><p>"She's in Spain. Someone was meant to find a replacement, but they hadn't."</p><p>"Oh... that's - actually on me - I told Isono I'd handle it - still! Why not just order in?!"</p><p>"You don't like any of the takeouts near by that are still open."</p><p>"I like my little brother burning to death even less! Seriously, Mokuba!" Kaiba's voice cracked and he dropped to his knees, so he could be on eye level with Mokuba and held on to his shoulder:"When the kitchen is on fire you call someone. The fire department, the staff, Isono, <em>me. </em>You don't just stand around texting and staring at it. You don't even try to put it out. Not if it's gone to be a full on campfire. You get <em>away</em>  from it and you call someone. Am I making myself clear?"</p><p>Mokuba nodded mutely. </p><p>"<em>Mokuba</em>."</p><p>Mokuba rolled his eyes just a bit, Kaiba grit his teeth:"Mokuba!"</p><p>"Yes, Nii-sama. I'm sorry. I just wanted to make you a nice dinner."</p><p>Kaiba sighed and stood:"Well, you made a fire instead. What were you trying to make anyway?"</p><p>"Pasta."</p><p>"Why pasta?"</p><p>Mokuba shrugged:"You like Western food and foie gras seemed like stretching my cooking abilities." </p><p>"You're supposed to boil the pasta before frying it. And use less grease," Kaiba informed with another sighed:"Have you eaten?"</p><p>"Not since breakfast."</p><p>"All right. Then we shall make dinner together. If you'd like."</p><p>Mokuba dared to smile again, he liked doing almost anything together with Seto and if he wasn't angry it was even better. </p><p>"What are we making?"</p><p>"Cooked rice and vegetables." </p><p>"<em>Nii-sama."</em></p><p><em>"</em>Don't Nii-sama me. I'm no Gordon Ramsay and neither of us have seen a vegetables in days."</p><p>"Let's make chocolate parfait."</p><p>"No. That's not even food."</p><p>"Hamburgers?"</p><p>"No. Stop complaining. It will be fine. We can fry the vegetables in tempura batter." </p><p>Mokuba was on board with that plan. Kaiba hadn't anticipated how much standing around for a few hours cooking rice and chopping vegetables would drain him, even if Mokuba did most of the chopping. He didn't think he could properly sit behind a table and eat. He wanted to lie down. God, he was pathetic. Thankfully, the world's greatest little brother simply announced that:"We're eating in bed" and phrasing it like a decided solid plan instead of a suggestion allowed Kaiba to agree to the plan with ease. He thanked whatever deities were out there for his little brother's ability to read him like an open book. So it was, that they were once again in Kaiba's bed, eating their dinner. It was nice, companionable, even if Mokuba could clearly see that making dinner had drained his brother's energy reserves. </p><p>"I'm s - "</p><p>"Don't."</p><p>Mokuba didn't. </p><p>"Can I borrow your laptop?" Kaiba asked once he was done with the meal.</p><p>"I can get one of yours."</p><p>"No need, I just need to send a quick e-mail," Kaiba said and Mokuba handed him his laptop. Seto positioned himself so that the screen was facing away, hoping it wasn't too obvious that he was hiding something and composed and e-mail. It took him a while to write it. It was physically painful. </p><p>
  <em>From: Kaiba Seto</em>
</p><p>
  <em>To: Mutou Yugi</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Cc: Masaki Anzu</em>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <em>Subject: Orders regarding Mokuba's birthday</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I hereby inform you that in the completely unacceptable and highly unlikely event that I find my body unwilling to yield to my will enough to do so myself, you are to entertain the Vice President of Kaiba Corporation on the day of his birthday. You may take him wherever he wishes and buy whatever any of you wishes. Any and all of these expenses will be covered by my personal account and a credit card that I will provide along with a sum of cash. You may include whoever else you see fit to these plans given that your motivation is the entertainment of the above mentioned Vice President. I have attached documentation that may be relevant and may aid you in your planning. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>With regards to my rival </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Seto's ridiculously long automatic signature followed the letter automatically. It even included the logo art to the company and a photograph of him. </em>
</p><p><em>海馬 瀬人 </em><br/><br/>Seto Kaiba </p><p>CEO and President of KaibaCorp</p><p>Inventor of DuelDisk™ and SolidVision Systems™</p><p>Head organizer of KC Tournaments</p><p>For press inquiries contact press@kaibacorp.jp</p><p>The moment Kaiba hit the "Send" button he regretted it. No matter how much he made it sound like an order, it was, in it's essence still a request, a plea. Kaiba was getting more and more aggravated with himself. He had been lightly stabbed and now he was fainting and falling asleep every five minutes and his wrist hurt and his ankle hurt as well as his stab wound and all of it was making his head hurt. He could at the very least organize a birthday for his brother and stay awake for it. His laptop pinged to let him know he had a new e-mail.</p><p>From: Mutou Yugi</p><p>To: Kaiba Seto</p><p>Subject: Re: <em>Orders regarding Mokuba's birthday</em></p><p>
  <em>Hey, Kaiba-kun! </em>
</p><p>
  <em>We'll be happy to spend time with Mokuba-kun on his birthday. Feel better soon. Did you get the fire sorted? If you guys need anything else, don't hesitate to ask. Thanks for giving us a list of all the things Mokuba likes. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Yugi, Other Me and Anzu</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Host for the soul of an Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Holder of all 3 God Cards</em>
</p><p>
  <em>What else... the Other Me is Duel King, I suppose</em>
</p><p><em>Occasional</em> <em> employee of Kame Game Shop</em></p><p>Attached to the e-mail was a selfie of Yugi and Anzu, smiling and looking obnoxiously happy. </p><p>Kaiba typed a reply furiously. </p><p>
  <em>From: Kaiba Seto</em>
</p><p>
  <em>To: Mutou Yugi</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Subject: Re: Re: Orders regarding Mokuba's birthday</em>
</p><p>
  <em>No, you absolute morons. I left the kitchen burning in flames and went to the other side of the house. What kind of stupid question is that? Ignore my previous e-mail. You're obviously all too stupid to handle a professional matter such as the one I have asked you to. </em>
</p><p><em>海馬 瀬人 </em><br/><br/>Seto Kaiba </p><p>
  <em>...</em>
</p><p>Kaiba threw the laptop against the wall on the other side of the room, regretting ever writing the damn e-mail. Such moments of weakness were unacceptable. He would be fine. He'd entertain Mokuba himself even if it killed him. Hopefully he'd die the next day as him dying might ruin Mokuba's day. </p><p>Mokuba watched Seto with mild disinterest: "Next time I'll bring you <em>your </em>laptop. That's the second thing of mine you've thrown on the ground today."</p><p>"Don't text while there's a fire," Seto bit back and got up: "I'm going to my office to work."</p><p>"Home office?"</p><p>"Yes."</p><p>"Okay."</p><p>Mokuba snuck into Kaiba's office half an hour later to find his brother watching some kind of replay of a tournament. It might have been work, but Mokuba thought it might not have been as well. He didn't comment, but he did get a chair to join him. Mokuba found himself thinking that if his birthday would consist entirely of cooking with Seto, playing games and watching videos together, he'd be perfectly cool with that. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sorry this took me a while. I finished the main series. Let that set in and then watched DSOD as well.<br/>And I also have a job and whatnot. </p><p>Now I'm reading the manga and it feels like I'm really making Kaiba too soft and nice. He might be a bit colder in the next one. </p><p>This chapter wasn't even supposed to be part of the story, but it just sort of - happened. Mokuba's birthday should be up next. I may have to up the chapter count again.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Hide and seek</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The fact that Seto Kaiba was up since 5:30 in the morning wasn't really that unusual in itself. The fact that he had spent almost the entirety of that time baking, was. Sure, he and Mokuba had done more cooking together the past week than they had perhaps in their entire lives, even if they had eventually hired some new kitchen staff, but this day was special. Kaiba usually made breakfast on Mokuba's birthday. It wasn't a perfectly followed tradition and they hadn't been able to do it every year, but Kaiba knew Mokuba adored it. And because his plans for this year were a rather less grand than they had been on previous years, he supposed he might as well start the day off with a grand breakfast. </p><p>In the past hours he had made pancakes, croissants, chocolate mousse (that he was planning to fill the croissants with) and of course, chocolate parfait. The macaroons were still in the oven. He was frankly unsure how they would work out. Was that a bit too much breakfast for two people? Yes. Was he slightly overcompensating for the fact that he had been utterly useless the past few days? (Sure, he had worked from home, but Mokuba had had to do all the work at the headquarters). Yes. But he did always like to add a bit of extra flare to things, making them as over the top as he could.</p><p>He had just started filling the croissants, when one of the servants explained there were people here to see him. </p><p>"People?" Kaiba repeated. </p><p>"I believe it's your friends from school, Seto-sama."</p><p>Kaiba scoffed: “They're not my friends. I don't have friends." He brushed the excess flour off his clothes and threw the apron on the kitchen counter, before going to the main hall, where Yugi and his friends were gawking at his Blue Eyes White Dragon marble statue: "What are you doing here? I thought I told you not to bother."</p><p>"Well, you also said that if we show up with cake and presents you won't kick us out," Yugi reminded happily. </p><p>"Yes, well, I expected you to come at a reasonable hour. Mokuba isn't even awake yet."</p><p>"We're just here to drop off some party supplies."</p><p>Kaiba looked at the large bags Yugi and Anzu were holding with some doubt in his eyes: "You know, I could have just ordered my staff to get whatever is in there."</p><p>"Yes, but that would be less fun."</p><p>Kaiba didn't see how running errands was fun, he scoffed and rolled his eyes: "Fine. Drop them in the living room or something." </p><p>"No, we need to hide them! We can't just put them in plain sight! Have you never planned a surprise party?"</p><p>"Okay, two things, one: no and two: it's not a surprise, you told him you were going to come and give him a party. Granted, I don't think he's 100% sure it will happen, but it's not a surprise. Not really. Now excuse me, I need to make sure I don't burn the macaroons,"  as Seto made his way to the kitchen Yugi, Jounouchi and Anzu all followed. </p><p>"Whoza! That's a lot of food!" Jounouchi pointed out. </p><p>"It's not for you," Kaiba cut.</p><p>"That can't be all just be for you and Mokuba. That's way too much," Anzu thought.</p><p>"You clearly haven't seen Mokuba eat sweets," Seto said dryly.</p><p>"Still, you had way too much made, we need to eat some of it," Jounouchi decided and reached out for a croissant.</p><p>Kaiba smacked his hand away: "If you must bring the dog in, keep him on a leash!"</p><p>In the meanwhile Anzu had found a small spoon and was tasting Kaiba's chocolate mousse: “Oh! This is delicious!"</p><p>"Oh Lord, you guys are a menace," Kaiba groaned: "Put all your party junk in one of the cupboards, Mokuba never checks those and leave!"</p><p>"Hey! We might not come if you keep on being so rude," Jounouchi threatened. </p><p>"I don't <strong><em>want</em></strong> you to come!" </p><p>"Well then maybe we won't!" Jounouchi shouted. </p><p>"<em>Good</em>!" </p><p>"Guys, guys!" Yugi cut them off. He had started to put party supplies away as per Kaiba's instructions: "He's right, it's rude of us to eat the breakfast he made Mokuba." </p><p>"But there's so much of it!" Jounouchi argued. </p><p>"And if he lets you near it, it will be gone in a minute," Anzu countered. </p><p>"You're still eating the mousse."</p><p>Kaiba sighed, took some of mousse he had in a piping bag and started filling a croissant.</p><p>"Why are you doing that anyway?" Jounouchi asked: “Aren't you rich? Don't you have staff for this sort of thing? Or did you spend all your money on that ridiculous statue in the hallway?" </p><p><em>"Please," </em>Kaiba snorted. </p><p>"That's not the point," Yugi said: "He's making breakfast, because it's Mokuba's birthday and he loves him."</p><p>Kaiba just rolled his eyes at that.</p><p>"There's no way he made all that!" Jounouchi argued: "Fancy boy may be able to pipe some chocolate cream inside a bun -,"</p><p>"It's a mousse and a croissant, you uneducated fool, " Kaiba cut in. </p><p>"-there's no way he could have made these fluffy pancakes and those lovely looking pastries or - whatever the things in the oven are."</p><p>"Seriously, you've never seen a macaroon before? Do we live on the same planet?" </p><p>"Not all of us grew up stinking rich." </p><p>Kaiba didn't bother to point out that he too, in fact come from poverty. He had made his riches. Well, sure he had taken some capital from Gozaburo, but even that had been a plan of his own making. Instead, he went and put the chocolate parfaits in the freezer, before someone decided to have a taste of that too. He was running behind on making them anyway. Ideally they should have set for 24 hours and he was only now putting them into the freezer. All the yelling had woken up Mokuba, a fact Kaiba decided to blame entirely on Jounouchi, Seto's younger brother was making his way to the kitchen, bleary-eyed and confused, but cheering up considerably at the sight before him. </p><p>"Nii-sama what's with all the - you made breakfast!" </p><p>"Hmm. Happy birthday," Kaiba said in the most driest, unenthusiastic, almost borderline sarcastic sounding tone. It still earned him a tight hug. </p><p>Everyone else then followed, giving their congratulations to Mokuba, sounding much more enthused. Much to Seto's annoyance Mokuba seemed very happy to see them all at their house: "You guys are early!" he said, sounding happy and pleased.</p><p>"We're just dropping by," Yugi said: "We'll have a proper party in the evening."</p><p>Mokuba looked over at Seto: "Can we? Can we really?"</p><p>"Sure. These idiots wanted it to be a surprise and they did a great job telling you the very first chance they got what they were planning. My breakfast was a bigger surprise."</p><p>"Well, I don't care. It sounds great either way!" Mokuba said, ignoring his brother's annoyed huff. </p><p>"Well, we'll be off then! See you after school, Mokuba-kun!" Yugi said, dragging Jounouchi along, before he could say something rude.</p><p>"Wait! Are you guys not staying for breakfast?"</p><p>Seto suddenly had the urge to jump off from the top of his headquarters, but he remained quiet about it. If Mokuba wanted this gang of idiots eating his breakfast, so be it.</p><p>"Are you sure? Kaiba-kun made it very clear we weren't to have any," Yugi worried. </p><p>"Oh that's ridiculous, dig in!" Mokuba said brightly, earning a cheer from Jounouchi. Kaiba glared daggers at everyone and everything and didn't say a single word while everyone destroyed the labour of hours of his work in the span of fifteen minutes, complimenting how delicious and delightful everything was. He decided he was never cooking a single thing ever again. Eventually Yugi and his friends left for school and Mokuba announced he was going too. </p><p>Kaiba looked a bit surprised at that: "It's your birthday. You can skip school." As far as Kaiba was concerned Mokuba could skip every day. They had both been privately tutored for everything the regular school system had to offer and more. They could only do the exams and be over with it. But Kaiba had the feeling Mokuba liked going to school. At least he went a lot more than he did. Maybe it helped him feel normal. Maybe he made friends. Seto didn't know. If Mokuba did make friends, he never invited them over. Maybe they didn't want to come, because Mokuba's big brother was so big and scary. Kaiba shook the thought away. Mokuba would tell him these things, if he found them important or of they bothered him. </p><p>"I don't mind," Mokuba said and Seto didn't reply. The younger boy got dressed and waved him good-bye. He paused: "Thank you for the breakfast, big brother," he said, but received no reply. He wondered if Seto was mad at him for asking Yugi and his friends to stay. Maybe he had wanted to spend some time alone together? Sure, they had had some more time together recently, because Kaiba was home healing from his injuries, but it was still a rare treat. Mokuba went to school worrying over whether he had ruined his big brother's morning. Kaiba was left alone in the kitchen with a pile of dirty dishes, wondering if that's how housewives felt. He didn't do the dishes himself of course, that part he was happy to leave for the staff. He did decide to go to work for the day. </p><p>The evening arrived, in Kaiba's opinion, much too soon and with it came Yugi, Jounouchi, his sister, Anzu and Honda. And he supposed also the Pharaoh, who was always supposedly with Yugi. Mokuba was delighted through and Kaiba figured he could suffer through a few hours of this. </p><p>Everyone decided they needed pizza for the party, much as all the stupid balloons and banners and things had come from Yugi and company, the pizza apparently needed to come out of Kaiba's pocket. Go figure. Well, he didn't exactly hate pizza and he let everyone choose whatever they wanted. They ended up with around 20 pizzas, some of them with the most ridiculous flavour combinations, but Kaiba could not bring himself to care. Everyone were very impressed that he could pay for 20 pizzas and not look at the bill once, but they really could have ordered the entire menu and it would have made no difference to him. </p><p>Then it was time to decide what they would actually do. Anzu insisted that they needed to dance, but no one else seemed all that enthused about it.</p><p>"We need games!" Yugi thought and this idea was met with cheers. Even Kaiba had to admit he was almost paying attention.</p><p>"No," Anzu said firmly, surprising everyone: "We're not playing games with Kaiba and Yugi in the same room. These two can turn hide and seek into an ultimate death game."</p><p>Kaiba snorted. </p><p>"You are pretty competitive," Mokuba agreed: "But it would be fun. We haven't played hide and seek in ages."</p><p>"That's because it's ridiculous. Plus this is <em>my</em> mansion. I know all the best hiding places. I'm sure to win," Kaiba said smugly.</p><p>"Nah. You're too big for all the best hiding places. I will be the one, who wins."</p><p>"Hey, guys I'm just as small as Mokuba. Anywhere he fits, I fit," Yugi pointed out.</p><p>"You're taller when you're <em>The Pharaoh</em>," Kaiba rolled his eyes at the ridiculous name, although he supposed acknowledging the height difference also meant he was admitting to actually paying attention to the differences between the two. </p><p>"I could just play as myself. Although I think he likes the idea too. Maybe we'll take turns."</p><p>"This is exactly what I'm talking about, you guys are already super competitive," Anzu worried. </p><p>"Oh come on, Anzu. Don't be a spoil-sport. It will be fun," Honda argued. </p><p>"Yeah, plus Kaiba's huge mansion is perfect for hide and seek!" Jounouchi urged.</p><p>"And hide and seek isn't as dangerous as Duel Monsters," Shizuka put in, apparently also wanting to play.</p><p>"Fine, but if we can't find Kaiba or either of the Yugis in two hours, they have to come out."</p><p>"Hey! They're not the only ones playing!" Jounouchi protested.</p><p>"Fine. Or Mokuba," Anzu said, rolling her eyes and smiling. Kaiba was also smirking at her comment, but no one but Mokuba noticed. The small boy looked genuinely happy as he ran off to hide. Anzu was left to do the seeking. She supposed it was payback for being against the idea. She groaned as she finally counted to 100 and started to look around: "God how am I meant to find anyone in this massive building?!" Even with gardens and outside areas as well as Seto's office and bedroom being off limits, that still left far too much ground to cover. </p><p>Kaiba had snuck down to the wine cellar. He wasn't even sure if anyone knew they had a wine cellar, but he figured it was one of the places they'd look last. However, inside the wine cellar there was a hatch that led to a safe, so big even someone his size would fit in. He supposed closing the safe with a security code would be cheating so he left it open and sat there on top of a literal pile of gold. It was good to have gold. It didn't loose value as easily as currencies. And he felt a bit like a dragon, so he was very happy with his hiding spot. Mokuba would be able to figure it out, perhaps, but others, he doubted. </p><p>Yugi also stumbled across the wine cellar while looking for a place to hide, although by that point Kaiba had already hidden inside his safe. He was looking around the rows of wine bottles and wine barrels when he found out that some of them were open and had things like cheese, jam or more wine bottles inside them. Yugi and The Pharaoh decided to empty one out and climb inside. They moved the barrel so that it was next to all the very real barrels and wouldn't stick out. Yugi fit inside perfectly without any part of him showing. </p><p>Anzu found Tristian first. He was going for a very classical under the bed approach. Then Shizuka was found from inside a giant closet. Then, after the girls had gotten over the fact that Kaiba's closet was bigger than their entire flat, they eventually found Jounouchi hiding in one of the server rooms inside the mansion. Mokuba, they almost thought they wouldn't find, but just before the two hours were up, they finally made it into the basement floor. Mokuba was hiding behind a one way mirror in an interrogation room they had.</p><p>"It's creepy that you have an interrogation room," Anzu thought.</p><p>"It's necessary," Mokuba said plainly: "So I take it there is no sign of Nii-sama or Yugi?"</p><p>"Nope," Anzu confirmed. </p><p>They looked for a bit longer still, but soon started calling out to Yugi and Seto. It didn't take Yugi too long to hear them. He had no watch so he hadn't been sure when two hours would be up. It had felt like more time than that had passed if he was honest. He felt stiff all over. Sure, he had fit inside a barrel, but it hadn't been a comfortable fit. He got out of the barrel, filled it back up with the things he had taken out, all of which, he had carefully placed around the room in various places so that a pile of jams and cheeses wouldn't give him away. He found that he didn't quite remember where the barrel had been, so he just pushed it near a wall, fully missing the thin lines in the wood that might indicate a door, and went to find his friends.</p><p>Seto, on the other hand was inside a steel cage, so he could hear no one calling out for him. He did however, have a watch, so he'd know when the two hours were up. In his boredom he had started putting on the various rings and jewelry the safe had. He didn't wear any of it normally, but having a stone inside a piece by a famous designer increased it's value so he had a lot of extremely valuable jewelry too. However one such a ring, worth millions no doubt, was now stuck on his finger and wouldn't come off. He had gotten it on just fine, but off, it was not coming. After a good 20 minutes off fiddling Seto found his finger red and swollen and painful and he was beginning to feel mildly anxious. What if he had to cut his finger off? No. The swelling would go down and then he would remove it with soap or butter or something. If anything they'd cut the ring off him. He checked the time and found that the game was supposed to be over. Perfect. He was done with this anyway. He did wonder if the others had managed to find Mokuba. Or Yugi. Or was he the winner? He smirked. Only one way to find out. Kaiba exited the safe and climbed up the small ladder that led to the hatch and pushed. The hatch didn't open. With an annoyed grunt Kaiba pushed harder. Nothing. </p><p>"Hmph," He put his whole body into it. Still nothing. What the hell was going on? He had been here many times and the door had never been jammed shut. He wasn't even sure it could get jammed shut in any way. </p><p>Meanwhile everyone had been in the second floor calling out to Kaiba for a good 10 minutes. </p><p>"I'm sure he just wants to be a big jerk and show off and is not coming out just to prove he is impossible to find," Jounouchi thought. </p><p>"Maybe he fell asleep in his hiding spot?" Shizuka offered.</p><p>"Then he'll join us when he wakes, let's go and eat something."</p><p>But Mokuba didn't like leaving his brother like that: “You guys go ahead. I'll look a bit more." </p><p>Shizuka gave Mokuba one look and understood how he was feeling: "You're worried about him. Come on you guys, this is Mokuba-kun's birthday. We can't let him wonder the house alone looking for his brother."</p><p>Katsuya sighed: “<em>Fine! </em>Hey, Kaiba, you big, jerk! Come out!" </p><p>They spent some while longer going around the house yelling, to the point when Mokuba became visibly distressed. It was then Yugi decided it was a serious enough of a situation to call for giving Pharaoh the lead. They switched and his Other Self started forming a plan: “We need to think like Kaiba."</p><p>"Think like a jerk, think like a jerk..." Jounouchi muttered, putting his fingers on his temples.</p><p>"You don't have to try, you're already there," Mokuba cut.</p><p>"Guys. Seriously. Mokuba you know your brother best. Where would he hide?"</p><p>Mokuba sighed: "I've already looked everywhere I thought of. I think if there's anyone who can figure this out it's - wait! Yugi! Where did <em>you</em> hide?"</p><p>"Well, my partner hid inside a wine barrel in the cellar." </p><p>Mokuba sighed: “No use. Nii-sama is too tall. He'd never fit."</p><p>"Let's just keep looking. We'll find him eventually," Anzu assured. </p><p>Kaiba wasn't panicking. Definitely not. Sure, he didn't have his phone or his coat on to call anyone to let them know, where he was, he was properly stuck and his shoulder now quite hurt from all the failed attempts at pushing the hatch open, but people knew to look for him. They'd come.</p><p>Eventually the entire house staff was tasked with finding Seto. Everyone from the gardener and maids to the butler, bodyguards and Isono were going round and round the building screaming: “Seto-sama!"</p><p>Mokuba was growing more and more desperate. They were now going through the gardens and Seto's private quarters were being checked, despite Mokuba being sure his brother would never cheat in hide and seek. He had his honour: "What if tried to climb up somewhere and fell and broke his neck? I think his ankle is still troubling him a bit. Or what if he tried to lift something heavy and pulled his stitches open and is now bleeding to death?"</p><p>"See? This is what I mean when I say every game becomes a death game with those two," Anzu said.</p><p>"Anzu!" Shizuka scolded, gesturing at Mokuba. </p><p>"I'm just saying, if you had listened to me, we wouldn't be here."</p><p>"Come on. No one could have known a hide and seek game would end up like this."</p><p>"Except me. I did know. Now let's try and find Kaiba. Other Yugi. Do you have a plan?"</p><p>"I feel like, knowing Kaiba he would want to hide somewhere grand, somewhere big, somewhere that's plain in sight maybe even...."</p><p>"Does sound like Nii-sama," Mokuba agreed: "But it's giving me no ideas."</p><p>In the meanwhile one of the maids had went down to basement to see if Master Seto could be found there. Kaiba heard her call out for him, but as he imagined the woman who washed her underwear reaching him, his pride momentarily got the better of him and he said nothing. He sighed. This was stupid. If he didn't yell back, no one would find him. He could live with the embarrassment of her rescuing him. </p><p>"In here!" he called. Silence. Nothing. Had she left in the short interval he had thought this through?: “<em>I'm in here!</em>" Kaiba screamed, louder. He heard a muffled sound of his voice being called, but it sounded further away now. </p><p><em>"I'm here! Come get me out, you moron!" </em>Nothing. Silence. Every now and again he heard muffled voices from somewhere far away, but he couldn't tell where exactly. He screamed every time he heard a voice. As loud as he could again and again, becoming more and more desperate, until his voice was hoarse and that was something, considering how much he screamed on regular basis.  Why had he hesitated the first time around! This could end up costing him his stupid life! He couldn't die under the floorboards next to his money. The press would have a field day. </p><p>Then he heard it. Mokuba's voice: “Nii-sama, please! Nii-sama, where are you?!"</p><p>"We started our search here. We called for him. He can't be here," Anzu thought.</p><p>"We've already looked everywhere! He has to be somewhere! I'm not giving up!"</p><p>"Of course, we won't stop looking either," Kaiba heard his rival say: "Kaiba is our friend. I'm sure at this point he would have come out. Something must have happened."</p><p>"<em>Mokuba</em>!" Kaiba screamed, but it didn't really sound like a scream anymore. He banged his fists against the hatch door: "<em>Mokuba</em>!" </p><p>Mokuba paused: “Did you guys hear something. Shhh."</p><p>"<em>Mokuba</em>!" Kaiba cried, his voice all yelled out. How had this happened? He yelled all the time during duels and it hadn't gotten that bad. He tried making his voice even lower: “<em>Mokuba</em>!" </p><p>"Nii-sama! Where are you?!"</p><p>"Under the floor boards next to the safe!" </p><p>"What?! I can't hear you!" </p><p>"I'm under the floorboards!" </p><p>Mokuba's eyes widened: “The safe..." his eyes fell on the barrel: "How did you get a barrel on top of the hatch?"</p><p>Yugi blanched: “That was... that was me. Me and partner, we hid in that barrel. Must have put it in the wrong spot." Mokuba was already moving the barrel away, Yugi went to help, embarrassed and guilty. </p><p>As the hatch opened both brothers were clearly relieved to see each other: “Nii-sama!"</p><p>"Mokuba!" Kaiba managed even as his voice was barely a whisper now, as they embraced each other: "Everything's okay," he whispered.</p><p>"You screamed your voice out."</p><p>"Yeah. Details." </p><p>"That is pretty impressive, rich boy, considering you scream half the time you speak. Someone must have been pretty scared," Jounouchi teased. </p><p>Kaiba snorted: “What do I have to be afraid of? You were all looking for me."</p><p>Anzu sighed: "Come on. Let's cut the cake and make Kaiba some tea for his throat," she suggested and everyone seemed on board with that idea. </p><p>"Does anyone else want tea?!" Anzu called from the kitchen. She had decided to handle that part while Yugi cut the chocolate cake into nice even pieces.</p><p>"Yeah!" Mokuba cried: “You can ask one of the maids to make it!"</p><p>"That's okay. I'll make it. Where's the tea?"</p><p>"Top drawer in the middle counter!" Mokuba called. </p><p>"Okay. What does everyone - <em>Whaa - </em>" Anzu was suddenly speechless, staring at the counter before her, everyone's causing everyone's attention to drift to her, to see what was up: "You have more than 100 types of teas here."</p><p>"245 last I checked."</p><p>"Why so many?"</p><p>Mokuba squirmed a bit: "Nii-sama and I like to drink a bit of tea at night together."</p><p>"At night?" Anzu asked confusedly. </p><p>"Yeah. Usually. Sometimes. It's kind of a thing we do," he blushed. Kaiba was nowhere near blushing, but he had his arms and legs crossed and he was looking away.</p><p>"That's sweet," Yugi said: "Well, you had all that wine in the cellar. Not sure why the tea surprises Anzu so much."</p><p>"The wines are just valuables. They age in time and their value rises. They're a type of investment. The tea we actually drink," Kaiba explained, coughing to get his voice back. </p><p>Once the tea was done and it was time to eat cake Anzu brought Mokuba a gift: "We know you have about everything under the sun, but..." she shrugged.</p><p>"Thank you!" Mokuba said brightly, unwrapping the paper carefully. It was a rather expensive looking set of colored pencils, many many vibrant colours in a stunning case. </p><p>"Since you like to draw. We were sure you already have just - "</p><p>"Thank you, I love it! They're great!" Kaiba looked over and even if he didn't say anything, he approved of the choice. It was clearly a pricy gift, not by his standards, but as far as pencils went you couldn't go much more high end than that. It was a thoughtful gift: "Who thought of it?" he asked.</p><p>"Me and Yugi, but it's from all of us." Anzu said. </p><p>"Thanks, it's great! I'm sure I'll use it a lot."</p><p>"What did rich boy get you?" Jounouchi asked, his mouth filled with cake.</p><p>"Oh!" Mokuba got up and brought something over: "He made me this laptop."</p><p>"He <em>made</em> it?" Honda asked.</p><p>"Yep. Sure. I mean he does all the best technology so..." Mokuba smiled and turned the thing over: “It has a modified version of the Solid Vision holographic systems built in, but this one is more versatile so you can project holograms of pretty much any 3D model you make," he then proceeded demonstrate this by projecting a life-sized young boy onto their living room floor. If he hadn't been a bit transparent and completely stock still he would have looked real.</p><p>"Aw, he's cute! Who is that?" Shizuka asked. </p><p>"That's Seto when he was young. I took a photo of him and made the 3D model based on it. I could have animated it too, so it looks more life-like, but I haven't yet. "</p><p>Adult Seto was decidedly ignoring the whole scene. He was fiddling with the ring that that still hadn't come off. </p><p>"I didn't realize Mr.Kaiba wore jewelry," Shizuka said quietly, leaving everyone confused until they noticed what Kaiba was doing. </p><p>"I was fiddling with the jewels in the safe and it got stuck," he explained quietly. </p><p>"Let me see," Shizuka asked and Seto reluctantly held out his hand: "Hmm. You've moved it around so much you've made it worse, your finger is all swollen and red. Okay. I need some soap and maybe some cold water and ice and - possibly butter," she said. Maids were fetched to gather the needed items and Shizuka sit down on the sofa and patiently dealt with the ring stuck on Kaiba's finger, having him hold his hand in cold water before soaping it up and then carefully removing the jewelry from his person. </p><p>"Ah, I'd get a ring stuck in my finger too if it meant Shizuka-chan would take care of me like that," Honda sighed.</p><p>"Can it," Katsuya clipped. </p><p>"There you go, Mr. Kaiba," Shizuka said, handing the ring back to him: "It's very pretty."</p><p>"You can have it," Kaiba said, surprising everyone.</p><p>"What?" Shizuka asked. </p><p>"As backpay for getting me out of this embarrassing situation." </p><p>"Hey! Kaiba! Don't you try and flirt with my sister too!" Jounouchi cried.</p><p>"I have no such intentions, pup."</p><p>"It's very kind of you, but I can't..." Shizuka said.</p><p>"Fine. Then I require something else as well. The ramen recipe - was it yours?"</p><p>"Yes."</p><p>"May I have it?"</p><p>"Yes, but I could give it to you anyway..."</p><p>"Then I could give you the ring anyway. It's really no big deal. Plus seeing it pisses me off now."</p><p>"Take it, Shizuka. We can sell it," Jounouchi suggested. </p><p>"We're not selling it," Shizuka said, already putting it on her finger: "Look how pretty it is!"</p><p>Anzu came over to see as well: "Now I'm kind of jealous."</p><p>Kaiba shrugged: “There were plenty of rings in the safe. I suppose you could pick one."</p><p>"Okay, Anzu, what did you put in Kaiba's tea? Why is he being so nice?" Jonouchi asked. </p><p>"I put nothing in there! Just tea and water!" she protested. </p><p>Once the cake was eaten Honda, Shizuka and Jounouchi all set to leave. </p><p>"Hang on a moment. I want to show you something else, my new laptop can do. Gather around, all of you. Here in the frame," Mokuba ordered. </p><p>"That's just a web camera. Most laptops have one. Sure, it's nice quality..." Jounouchi began</p><p>"It's not just a web camera! Shut up and pose for a picture. You too, Nii-sama."</p><p>"I know what it does. I built it."</p><p>"But I want you in the picture!" </p><p>"With these dorks?"</p><p>"Come on! <em>Please</em>? Sit next to me." </p><p>"Fine, but if you ask me to smile..." everyone made room for Kaiba and once they were all in the frame Mokuba captured a few images. </p><p>"Okay, now what?" Jounouchi asked. </p><p>"Now, we hit print," Mokuba beamed, clicked on a button and a small polaroid-looking photograph of all of them, popped up from the side of the computer: "It has an in-built photo printer!"</p><p>"That's cool!" Anzu agreed.</p><p>"Yep. I think maybe it's because I told Nii-sama I wanted to have more pictures of him. And now I have a picture of all of you from the time you came to my birthday!" Mokuba sounded truly happy. </p><p>"That's awesome," Yugi thought: "However I think we should all get going now."</p><p>"Aww, can't you stay a little longer? There are like five other pizzas left."</p><p>Kaiba couldn't help, but glare at his brother. He wanted more of these people's company? Well, he supposed they didn't entertain guests like this all that often. Or at all.</p><p>"I could stay a bit," Anzu thought. </p><p>"Yeah me too," Yugi agreed: "We could play something." Anzu looked worried at that, so he added: "Not anything dangerous."</p><p>"We could have a pizza eating contest."</p><p>"No we could not," Kaiba said: “That's gross, undignified and I'm not having staff clean up vomit."</p><p>"Duel Monsters?" Mokuba suggested. Anzu looked even more horrified so Mokuba laughed: "Not between Nii-sama and Yugi. Like - I don't know - Anzu, would you want to duel me? You never got your chance to duel at the tournament."</p><p>Anzu looked surprised: “Really? You'd want to?"</p><p>"Sure."</p><p>They said their good byes to Shizuka, Honda and Jounouchi and Anzu and Mokuba set to play, Kaiba and Yugi serving as audience on the sofa. Kaiba noticed that Yugi had changed into his duelist persona, so he must have been at least somewhat interested in this game. Kaiba didn't really expect much from Anzu Masaki, but he liked seeing his brother duel. Mokuba had a sort of carefree playfulness to his style Kaiba slightly envied and respected. He didn't know how to play like that. </p><p>"Nii-sama, can I borrow some of your cards?" </p><p>"Sure," Kaiba said getting his deck out.</p><p>"You share cards?" Anzu asked. </p><p>"Well, Nii-sama lets me use some of his if I want to."</p><p>"Some?"</p><p>"I have my own cards too."</p><p>"Mmm. But he doesn't let you use all of them, surely?"</p><p>Mokuba looked confused: "Sure he does."</p><p>"What? Even Blue Eyes?"</p><p>Mokuba looked no less confused: "Sure." </p><p>"I don't get why you find that so surprising, Masaki," Seto said coldly. </p><p>"You nearly killed Yugi's grandfather over that card!"</p><p>"Yes, but I would sell my soul, heart and flesh for Mokuba's sake, so why wouldn't I let him use my cards?" Kaiba asked casually. </p><p>Anzu gaped at the admission, given as if it was no big deal: "Wow..."</p><p>"It's not that surprising," the Pharaoh put in: "Kaiba's one of the most passionate people I know. His passion is sometimes a little misdirected, but he <em>is</em> passionate. Plus it is no surprise to any of us surely that he cares for Mokuba. He may be telling me my attachment to my friends is stupid when they get kidnapped, but the moment Mokuba is kidnapped too, he's running besides me to save him."</p><p>"That's different. He's my little brother," Kaiba said, staring at the Spirit of the puzzle and wondering what to make of the fact that he had just called him passionate. One of the most passionate people he knew, he had said. However, before he could finish that thought something else caught his attention: “What are you doing?"</p><p>"Shuffling our decks. What does it look like?" </p><p>"And where are your Duel Disks?"</p><p>"I don't even have one," Anzu said. </p><p>"Then get her one," Kaiba told Mokuba, who got up. </p><p>"Oh come on. Can't we play casually?"</p><p>"Sure, sure. I mean I only invented this world changing revolutionary technology, but if you two want to play like cavemen, go ahead."</p><p>Mokuba groaned: "I'm getting them, Nii-sama. Don't be such a diva." </p><p>"I'm not." </p><p><em>"Yes, you are,</em>" Anzu argued. </p><p>Once Duel Disks had been gathered, the duel could commence. </p><p>"Does she only have magical girls and pink winged creatures in her deck?" Kaiba asked. </p><p>"Big words from someone whose deck includes Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon, Blue-Eyes Chaos Dragon, Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon, Blue-Eyes Solid Dragon, Dragon Spirit of White..."</p><p>"Okay, okay, I see your point. No need to rub it in. I like Blue Eyes. I know I do."</p><p>"And she likes magical girls. Nothing wrong with that."</p><p>"Well, except that her magical girls are weak. Even Black Magician Girl only has 2000 ATK."</p><p>"It can be a good deck, if played right."</p><p>"You reckon you could beat me with that deck?" Kaiba challenged. </p><p>Yugi smirked: “And whose deck are you using?"</p><p>"My own."</p><p>"That's a little unfair, but I think the bigger question is would you be able to live it down if I could." </p><p>"I'd probably kill myself," Kaiba said and the room got deadly quiet as everyone stared at him: "What?"</p><p>"That's - pretty stupid, over a card game. This is why I don't want you guys playing anything," Anzu said. </p><p>"I wouldn't agree to it then. I wouldn't want you to," The Pharaoh decided.</p><p>"You offend me. Implying I can't take you on." </p><p>"I'm sure you could, but I don't want to play with my friends lives for no reason like that. I'd have to hold back subconsciously. " </p><p>Kaiba opened his mouth to argue that they weren't friends, but he found he didn't want to argue the point. This was - nice. Before there had been far too many people, but with just Anzu, Mokuba and his rival the atmosphere felt pleasant: "Fine. If I promised to -  not, as Mokuba would imply, overreact to my possible defeat, would you have me on?"</p><p>"Sure. Only if you're sure you won't blow anything up if you lose. Do you want to do it now?" The Pharaoh said seriously.</p><p>Kaiba's eyes widened: “You would? Really? Here?"</p><p>"Sure, why not?"</p><p>"It's not exactly a tournament." </p><p>"So the game isn't official. So what?"</p><p>Kaiba burst out laughing: "If I had known it would be that easy - well, no, I guess I would have still done the tournaments."</p><p>The Pharaoh laughed too: "I've never once indicated that I don't want to play with you casually."</p><p>"Well, we're not exactly friends." </p><p>"Well, whose fault is that? Aibou wants to be friends with you and I certainly don't oppose to the idea either. We can be rivals and friends depending on the situation, I would think."</p><p>Kaiba scoffed: "I don't need friends." </p><p>"Yeah, last week has really shown how unnecessary our friendship has been," Yugi's alter ego agreed sarcastically.</p><p>"I would have managed... But I am grateful," he conceded and then turned his attention back to the game at hand: "Mokuba will win in 3 turns," he predicted.</p><p>"I don't know, Anzu might yet surprise you." </p><p>Kaiba scoffed: "She's an amateur."</p><p>"Hey! Maybe be a <em>little</em> nicer?!" Anzu snapped: "I set one card down and end my turn."</p><p>"Yeah, because your comments towards me are always so kind," Kaiba sneered.</p><p>"Well, maybe, if you weren't such an asshole..." </p><p>Kaiba didn't dignify that with a response. Mokuba however was not happy: "Hey! You're in our house playing with a Duel Disk my brother just graciously gifted to you. Not to mention that he offered to gift you jewelry not twenty minutes ago. And don't get me started on all the chocolate mousse and pancakes you ate this morning, which he made. For me." </p><p>Anzu blushed: "H-He didn't say I could keep the Duel Disk."</p><p>Kaiba sighed: "You can keep the Duel Disk. It's an old model. I'm coming out with a new one in May if all goes accordingly. It will be worthless."</p><p>"Wow, you're right Mokuba. Your brother really is the epitome of kindness," Anzu said, voice dripping with sarcasm. </p><p>"Okay. I'm done playing nice with you," Mokuba said. "You're going down this next turn." </p><p>"Oh? I have a Rose Witch on my field and she's way stronger than your Protector with Eyes of Blue and then you have this Maiden with Eyes of Blue, who looks really nice, but has no attack or defend points," Anzu turned her head to roll her eyes at Kaiba: “Seriously, how big must your ego be? Protector with Eyes of Blue? Maiden with Eyes of Blue? Really? Must all your cards have blue eyes like you?"</p><p>Mokuba just smiled: "Okay. My turn. I draw a card. I activate my spell card Bingo Machine, Go!!! Now I reveal 3 cards from my Deck and you pick one for me to add to my hand."</p><p>It didn't take Mokuba long to pick. Anzu stared at them: "They are all Blue Eyes. Doesn't matter which one I pick," she said picked one anyway. </p><p>"Now I'll use the of effect of Protector with Eyes of Blue and send 1 effect monster I control into my graveyard. I pick Maiden with Eyes of Blue. Now I can Special Summon a Blue Eyes from my hand."</p><p>Anzu squirmed a bit. She only had Rose Witch on her field and while she was good enough to have destroyed the Master the next turn, she couldn't handle Blue Eyes. Oh well. It was just one Blue Eyes. She could survive the attack and on the next turn she'd just destroy Mokuba's blue eyed handsome guy with another monster she had in her hand.  </p><p>"However my brother's maiden," Mokuba giggled: "Okay that sounded weird. But Maiden with Eyes of Blue has a special effect and when she is targeted by a card effect, like she just was, I can special summon another Blue Eyes from my hand, deck or graveyard."</p><p>"No way." </p><p>"Yep. And because I haven't normal summoned a monster yet this turn, I will now summon a third Blue Eyes."</p><p>"Wait, with what exactly? You have one Blue Eyed guy and... well two Blue Eyes, but why you would you sacrifice one of those just to get a another one out?"</p><p>"Oh, I won't. I activate Soul Exchange and instead sacrifice your Rose Witch, who, as you know, is an effect monster that counts as two tributes," Mokuba beamed as he summoned his third Blue Eyes for the turn. He dared a glance at his brother, who looked incredibly proud: "And now I activate my last spell card Polymerization." The look on Anzu's face was priceless and Mokuba fully understood why his brother laughed like a maniac when destroying his enemies. The giddy feeling inside made him laugh too. Maybe Seto did feel happy when playing and he didn't need to worry so much about him being unhappy: "I fusion summon Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon!" </p><p>"You know, you could have just attacked me with one of the Blue Eyes and I would have lost too," Anzu pointed out dryly: "Your overkill is pointless."</p><p>"Yeah, I <em>could</em> have, but you also <em>could have </em>been nicer to my brother, so I attack!" he said merrily and watched the magnificent animation play out as Anzu's life points dropped to zero. </p><p>"You know, it's really unfair if you just use your brother's cards," she muttered. </p><p>Mokuba didn't care for her comments, he ran into his brother's arms, hugged him and handed the cards back: “Was I okay?"</p><p>"Your skills are wasted on her. And don't listen to her. There's no such thing as a pointless overkill. Showing your opponents just how much superior you are to them is never a bad thing."</p><p>"It was really impressive," Yugi agreed and Mokuba beamed: "Thanks, Yugi! Means a lot!" </p><p>"Hey, whose side are you on?" Anzu asked, but she too, smiled. She couldn't stay mad when Mokuba was so sincerely happy and Kaiba looked so terribly proud of his little brother. It was adorable: "You're right. That was pretty impressive dueling." </p><p>"I know! I am the VP of Kaiba Corporation after all," Mokuba beamed, shoving that he could be a little full of himself too: "But thanks."</p><p>The Pharaoh then turned to look at Kaiba: "Well then? Shall we?"</p><p>"<em>Of course. </em>But you're right about the unfair advantage. It would offer me no pleasure defeating you against such a weak deck."</p><p>"What if you had a weak deck too?" Mokuba offered. </p><p>"Hmm. Do you want to elaborate?"</p><p>"Well, Anzu was supposed to go up against someone in the tournament, was she not? Why don't we look up who her opponent was? All duelists must register their decks upon entry so we can just see whoever her opponent was suppose to be and use their deck."</p><p>Kaiba hummed: “Could be interesting. All the decks I saw were <em>awful</em>. "</p><p>"The matched up duelists are always roughly with the same card and skill levels so - it should be fair?" Mokuba looked over to the Pharaoh to see what he thought.</p><p>"Sounds like a fun challenge."</p><p>Kaiba didn't know whether to be upset at the use of the word <em>fun</em>, or let it go. He went for the latter. He didn't get that many chances to play against his rival. So he got up, went to get his laptop and looked up the tournament duelist details: "Oh God it's worse than I thought," the Pharaoh looked over Kaiba's shoulder thoughtfully: "Not the worst deck..."</p><p>"Really? You think it could be worse?"</p><p>"The balance of trap, spell and monster cards is pretty okay."</p><p>"Practically none of these monsters have effects! And many of them have an ATK of under 1000!" Kaiba protected.</p><p>"It is a pretty defensive deck, but it's not the worst. Just very much not suited for your personal play style. Is the deal off then?" he smirked.</p><p>"I never back away from a challenge! You're on."</p><p>"Great. Do you think you have all those cards?" </p><p>"Sure, come on," Kaiba said, getting up. Mokuba followed enthusiastically and Anzu joined too. They went down a narrow hallway into a room that required both a door code and a retina scan. Once Seto had inserted both he turned to the little company: "Yugi, Mokuba, come."</p><p>Anzu looked shocked: "What about me!?"</p><p>"I can't let you in."</p><p>"Why not?"</p><p>"You'll just make stupid comments."</p><p>Anzu raised an eyebrow: “What's in there?"</p><p>Mokuba sighed: "You can come in, but no comments about my brother's ego or his Blue Eyes obsession."</p><p>"Okay, okay. I won't make fun of him. Gee, for someone who's so mean, he sure has a fragile ego himself."</p><p>Kaiba scoffed and let them all inside. Mokuba knew what to expect, but Yugi and Anzu both let out a simultaneous: "Wow..." as they looked around the room where glass case after glass case was filled with Blue Eyes White Dragon memorabilia.</p><p>"You have <em>another</em> life-sized statue?" Anzu asked.</p><p>"Mmm," Kaiba hummed in agreement. While one side of the room was filled with Blue Eyes merchandise, other included steel cupboards with many drawers you could pull out that served as a massive card index. </p><p>"How many of these smaller figures you have?" Anzu asked.</p><p>"1 245," Kaiba replied coolly, while he looked for the cards he needed. His rival had joined him at the card index: “May I?"</p><p>Kaiba made a gesture that could be interpreted as <em>Go ahead </em> so the Pharaoh carefully opened one of the drawers: "You have some pretty exclusive cards," he sounded impressed and Kaiba couldn't help but smirk. </p><p>"Of course," he was going through the index methodically while his opponent seemed to be browsing. He didn't mind. They were respectful of each other and their things. Well, maybe Kaiba hadn't always been, but surely the Pharaoh wasn't as petty as to start ripping his cards in revenge. Right?</p><p>Kaiba looked over to the Pharaoh, just in case. He was looking and nodding at empty space: "What?" Kaiba asked sharply.</p><p>"Aibou was just saying how if we were friends we could trade and borrow cards between ourselves and it would be - well  - great."</p><p>"Well, if you ever need a rare card... you may come and get it. Obviously you wouldn't get in, but I'd grant you access if asked. I doubt you have cards I'm interested in... these days."</p><p>The Pharaoh smiled: “A bit embarrassed?"</p><p>"No. I did what I had to."</p><p>The Pharaoh raised an eyebrow: "You really didn't <em>have</em> to do any of that..."</p><p>Kaiba didn't answer. This felt like it was going to turn into a fight if he continued and not the nice, dueling kind of fight he wanted. He finished assembling his terrible deck and they all returned to the living room.</p><p>"Nii-sama. What you said earlier..."</p><p>"I didn't mean it. I would never. I'm not a quitter," Kaiba said seriously: "Don't worry."</p><p>"Okay!" Mokuba said brightly. He seemed properly excited about the duel now and he was practically bouncing with excitement as he sat on the sofa. Anzu seemed less excited: "I still think there should be more dancing at a party..."</p><p>"We have one of those dance games where you try to hit all the moves right, if you want to," Mokuba suggested. </p><p>"Really?! Can I?" Now Anzu seemed excited too.</p><p>"Sure. I'll ask one of the maids to set it up for you in one of the spare rooms," Mokuba said getting up: "You sure you don't want to see Yugi and Nii-sama duel?"</p><p>Anzu smiled: "I don't have to. I know Yugi will win," but she did turn back to yell: "Give him hell, Yugi!" and see the man give her a thumbs up. </p><p>"Funny, I happen to know Seto will win," Mokuba said just as certainly: "Don't win before I'm back, Nii-sama!" </p><p>Once Mokuba made sure the dancing simulator was all set up in one of the spare rooms, he returned to watch his brother and Yugi play. They both had 3 monsters out, but neither had managed any damage to the other's life points. As Mokuba watched the game advance he learnt just how evenly matched these two were. Sure, he had always known, but it somehow became really apparent with these borrowed decks how they were both excellent strategists and could adapt to the situations they were thrown in. The duel was evenly matched. <em>Really evenly</em>. It took ten turns, before Seto managed to do battle damage. Mokuba cheered, but Yugi got him back the next moment with his trap. An hour later Mokuba was starting to loose track of the turns. Yugi still had 1600 LP and his brother had 1200, but it didn't look like either was going to loose any time soon. Mokuba could feel his lids get heavy. He shook his head. He had to stay awake to cheer for his brother. </p><p>Some 20 minutes later Kaiba got in a coughing fit. His throat was so dry from all the screaming earlier and all the talking they had done over this duel that he could barely speak. </p><p>"Can we maybe do a water break?" his rival suggested: "My throat is getting a bit dry too, if I'm honest."</p><p>"Sure," Kaiba managed and went to kitchen, returning with two glasses of ice water. He looked over to the sofa as he drank to find Mokuba slouched on it, sound asleep and just about to fall over the edge. His opponent looked over too and smiled: "Poor Mokuba. We really tired him out."</p><p>"I was just wondering if our dueling is that boring," Kaiba said, but he didn't sound mad as he went to make sure his little brother didn't end his birthday by falling face first onto the floor. He placed his head on a pillow and pulled a light blanket over him and as he turned, he saw the Pharaoh look at him with an annoyingly fond smile.</p><p>"Let's finish this. Unless you want more water?"</p><p>"I'm good. Does it feel weird to you not to have Blue Eyes in your deck? I keep expecting to draw Dark Magician every turn. Well, part of me does."</p><p>"Yeah, I'm really not used to having any good dragons in my deck. I must admit I felt a bit lost those first few turns."</p><p>"Me too, I mean Anzu's deck still has spellcasters, but..." </p><p>"They're all pathetic," Kaiba provided: "Come on, I'm about to destroy you."</p><p>"Is that so?"</p><p>"Very much. Watch me."</p><p>In the end the Pharaoh decked out, but Kaiba was out of cards too, so he wouldn't have been able to conduct his draw phase in the next turn either. He insisted it wasn't wasn't a proper victory. He wanted to demolish his opponents. A deck out victory was no real victory to him. Especially because he was also out of cards. </p><p>He went to wake his brother: “Hey, kiddo. The game's over. It's bed time," he said softly squeezing Mokuba's shoulder. The younger boy blinked his eyes open, rubbing the sleep away from his eyes: “Who won?"</p><p>"Seto did," the Pharaoh said. </p><p>Mokuba's eyes widened: “<em>No way! And I slept through that?! Why didn't you wake me!? I wanted to see you win!" </em>he was pouting and looking like he was about to cry.</p><p>"It wasn't a proper win. Yugi decked out. I would have too at next turn. Our life points were 400 each. It was a draw at best."</p><p>"It was a win by any rulebook, Kaiba."</p><p>"Well, not the sort of win I would find satisfactory," Kaiba argued, crossing his arms.</p><p>"God, you're impossible," the Pharaoh thought. </p><p>"Well, I'm sure you were both awesome. I'm really sorry I fell asleep."</p><p>"It's okay. We stayed too late. I'll get Anzu and we'll go home," the spirit of the puzzle assured. </p><p>"You can stay the night," Seto and Mokuba said in perfect unison, although the older brother seemed rather embarrassed of his words a moment later. </p><p>"I mean it is very late," Mokuba added. </p><p>Their guest was clearly surprised, but didn't seem to mind: "Oh. That sounds lovely. Thank you."</p><p>Seto nodded: "I'll alert the staff to prepare some rooms."</p><p>Mokuba giggled: “They are gonna have a fit. We never have people over like this. Earlier when we were looking for Seto I heard two kitchen maids gushing about how nice it is Master Seto is making some friends." </p><p>"Give me their names and they're fired," Seto said, but Mokuba thought he might have been joking, Hopefully. He wouldn't give out their names just in case. </p><p>"Consider yourself lucky," Yugi said, apparently he and the Pharaoh had switched places again and the shorter boy was in charge: "My other self and I walked into Honda trying to make a very awkward move on Shizuka and her rejecting him."</p><p>"Oh. Yeah, I noticed he keeps pushing himself on her. His comments are kind of creepy."</p><p>Yugi squirmed. He didn't want to agree with this statement about his friend, but he did, kind of, agree with it: "Yeah, a bit..."</p><p>"Too bad. Shizuka is nice. I like her. She could do better," Mokuba started giggling: "Still, at least they weren't making out and had all their clothes on, right?"</p><p>"Oh God, yeah sure. He was just trying to kiss her, but she pulled away."</p><p>Mokuba hummed thoughtfully: "Still. Not the worst thing ever. I once walked in on the gardener and one of the maids doing it in - get this - Seto's home office." </p><p>"<em>Oh, God no,</em>" Yugi looked horrified.</p><p>"I mean it wasn't the most traumatizing thing I've seen, because - you know - I've <em>seen things</em>, but man it was pretty - something."</p><p>"What happened?"</p><p>"Seto fired them of course. It was not pretty," Mokuba laughed: "He said that if anyone ever gets caught again during work hours, he will make sure these people will never be able to have sex for as long as they live. I mean as far as threats go, pretty vague, but I think it was the vagueness that scared people. I mean you can fill these blanks in various ways and none are nice. Most of the staff didn't dare to speak with him for weeks. But all of that wasn't even the worst bit..."</p><p>"Oh no..."</p><p>"Yep. Later that evening my amazing, slightly emotionally stunted big brother whom I love more than anything decided he was going to have to give me <em>the talk."</em></p><p>Yugi managed to look horrified even as he started laughing, hard, so hard he could barely speak: “Oh no, h-how did that go?"</p><p>"About as well as you'd expect. I mean, like I said, I love the man, but I don't think he even knows exactly how sex works. I mean he's never even kissed anyone. I'm not sure which of us was more embarrassed. We didn't really get anywhere. I assured him I'm totally cool not having that conversation with him, but I was scared he'd ask one of the staff to do it or give me a book or something. I mean, much as it was super awkward and terrible, if I have to get the talk from someone eventually I'd rather it be Seto than one of our staff."</p><p>Yugi was calming down from his laughing fit, feeling kind of sorry for Mokuba and wondering if there was anyone in their friend group who would be mature enough and willing to give Mokuba advice on the matter when he really needed it.  Meanwhile Kaiba had returned:  "Orders have been given. Masaki is still at the game. It's sort of impressive really. She seemed cool with the plan. What are you two giggling about?" </p><p>"Oh, I was just telling Yugi something," Mokuba said, getting up: "Let's go see Anzu dancing."</p><p>Anzu's dancing was truly impressive and her stamina even more so. She had been at it for hours and while they all assumed she must have had breaks, she was still hitting every step flawlessly : “Have you ever tried to beat her at that game?" Kaiba asked as they watched, Kaiba with his arms crossed leaning against the doorway and the Yugi standing next to him, they were both clearly impressed.</p><p>"Do you mean me or Other Me? I don't think neither of us has. We know our limits."</p><p>"She's like <em>a machine</em>," Kaiba noted.</p><p>"I can hear you, you know," Anzu called.</p><p>"I think it was a compliment!" Yugi called back.</p><p>"Do you want to see your rooms, Masaki?" Kaiba asked. </p><p>"In a moment. Let me clear this level," she glanced over at the two boys: "This game rocks!"</p><p>"Very well, I'll see how your rooms are coming along. I asked the staff to put extra toothbrushes and things in all the bathrooms and you should find some bathrobes in the bedrooms if you need them. ."</p><p>"Thanks, Kaiba-kun!" Yugi said: “I'm going to wash up then."</p><p>"Which of you won the duel?" Anzu asked, her attention still on the game before her. </p><p>"Kaiba-kun did," Yugi replied.</p><p>Anzu took a misstep and looked over: “What?! No way. I should have stayed to cheer you on after all."</p><p>"It was a deck out victory," Kaiba said. "Doesn't count."</p><hr/><p>Seto Kaiba stepped into the main bathroom of his lavish mansion and stared his reflection at the huge silver framed mirror that had a sculpted silver Blue Eyes on top. He felt emotionally exhausted, but not regretful. Mokuba seemed happy with his day and he had gotten to duel the Pharaoh, even if it hadn't been a proper tournament duel and even if he hadn't properly won either. He would have the kind of victory he wanted one day. Kaiba removed his shirt and started with the exhausting task of changing the bandages around his torso. He got new ones out of the first aid cabinet and wondered if he could get away with not putting them on. The wound was healing just fine, after all. Wasn't even that bad. He was in the middle of unwrapping his bandages when he heard a splash: "Kaiba!"</p><p>Kaiba jumped at the sound and turned to find the Pharaoh sitting in the opposite end of the bathroom, lounging in the shallow end of his indoor pool he had in this particular bathroom, sitting in the water with his back against the tiled pool wall: "Sorry, I had my eyes closed and I didn't hear you come in." </p><p>"Mmm," Kaiba wasn't sure what to do now. He felt uncomfortable standing half-naked in front of his rival, but he also couldn't just stop what he was doing now.</p><p>"Why do you have an indoor pool in your bathroom?"</p><p>"Why are you in my indoor pool?" Kaiba snapped back.</p><p>"Because it's - nice. Should have I asked beforehand?"</p><p>"There's your answer. It's nice and I can afford it. And no. Just don't be a hypocrite."</p><p>The Pharaoh hummed in reply and closed his eyes, clearly not at all bothered by a half-naked Seto Kaiba: "It is nice. Reminds me of something..."</p><p>"I thought you had no memories," Seto grumbled.</p><p>"Yeah, I can't remember what it reminds me of," his rival sounded amused. "I like the Blue Eyes and Black Magician tile mosaics on the walls."</p><p>"Really?"</p><p>"Yeah. The art is really intricate and beautiful. I didn't really expect to see any Black Magicans in your house to be honest."</p><p>"That's one of the few ones. Mokuba said I needed a a healthier outlet for dealing with my duel losses," he sounded put off my the suggestion. </p><p>The Pharaoh laughed: "So you redecorated the bathroom?"</p><p>Seto hummed in agreement as he tried to to put fresh bandages on himself. He was obviously struggling, getting the whole thing in knots and twists. The Pharaoh got out of the pool, dried his hands into the nearest towel and went to stand up behind Seto: "Let me..."</p><p>"I've got this!"</p><p>"Yes, but it will just be easier like this. Who helped you the last time?"</p><p>"Mokuba, but he looks like he's just barely holding back tears every time he sees the wound, so I really don't want to ask him," not that he had been asking the previous times. The Pharaoh was clearly trying to be very impersonal in his touches, but Kaiba could feel his fingers were warm from being in the warm water and soft. There was a part of him that wanted to sink into the man. He didn't get a lot of closeness like this. The only person who had touched him with any kind of affection in years, was Mokuba, although the boy loved hugging his big brother, a fact Seto was secretly very glad for. </p><p>The Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle was nearly done with his work when Seto heard a door open, a high pitched sound of a woman's voice and then the door was slammed shut. He looked up, but all he could see in the reflection of the mirror was him and The Pharaoh, both shirtless, the other man clearly very focused on on his work: "What was that?" </p><p>"Not sure," Kaiba replied.</p><p>Mokuba was walking down the hallway towards the main bathroom when he met with Anzu, who was running away from his intended direction, crying. </p><p>"Hey, Anzu. What happened?"</p><p>"Yugi and Seto are making out in the bathroom."</p><p>Mokuba's eyes widened, he had heard the words coming out of the sobbing girl's mouth, but he was having difficulty understanding them: “<em>What?"</em> </p><p>"I saw them. Your brother was in Yugi's arms and they were both naked."</p><p>Mokuba laughed: “I don't know, what you saw, but <em>that</em> couldn't have been it." </p><p>"It makes total sense. All this tension between them in their duels.."</p><p>"Listen, Anzu, my brother isn't like that. He barely hugs me. I'm sure you got it wrong," Mokuba said and went and pulled the bathroom door open even as Anzu tried to stop him.</p><p>At this point the Pharaoh had finished his work and Seto was just leaning down to grab his shirt off the floor when the door opened and he was faced with Mokuba: "Eight bathrooms and you all choose this one."</p><p>"It's the best one," Mokuba shrugged: “Were you and Yugi making out?" </p><p>Both men spoke simultaneously: "What?!"</p><p>Anzu said she saw you and - well, you are actually both shirtless like she said."</p><p>"That is ridiculous! Yugi was dressing my wound."</p><p>"Oh. You could have asked me."</p><p>"Yugi was a lot less affected by the sight."</p><p>Mokuba nodded, understanding and called out of the room: "Anzu, you totally misunderstood!"</p><p>A red-eyed Anzu emerged a moment later and the sight clearly upset the Pharaoh: "Anzu! Are you okay?"</p><p>"Yeah... There's nothing going on between you and Kaiba?" she asked timidly. She still seemed a little uncomfortable to be around the two men when they were both shirtless. Not that she minded. At all. She may have not liked Kaiba, but he wasn't bad looking and Other Yugi was just handsome in every way. </p><p>Before the Pharaoh could answer Kaiba cut in with a crude humorless laugh: "Please. There is only one person in this room, who wants to have sex with Yugi and it's not me." It was obvious after all, even now, the girl could hardly keep her eyes away from his rival's well-defined abs. </p><p>Kaiba was slapped hard across the face the next moment: “ You utter jerk! Of course there couldn't be anything going on between you two! Because while Yugi is sweet and kind and caring you're completely unable to love anyone besides yourself!" </p><p>"Hey - !" Mokuba began, but Kaiba cut him off. </p><p>"Leave it, Mokuba."</p><p>Anzu stormed off and the Pharaoh - or was it Yugi now? - followed him. He ran after Anzu the whole way to the bedroom she was staying at.</p><p>"This was all a mistake! I should have never come here!" he heard her saying. </p><p>"Hey, it was a fun night otherwise."</p><p>"He's such an utter jerk!"</p><p>"We don't know everything he's been through and you were pretty unfair to him."</p><p>"<em>Excuse me!</em>? I was unfair to <em>him</em>?" </p><p>"That whole comment about him not being able to love anyone was a bit much," Yugi thought.</p><p>"It's true," Anzu argued: "You sure there's nothing going on between you and him then?"</p><p>Yugi smiled: "Absolutely nothing. I'd like to be friends with him, but that's about it."</p><p>"Don't waste your time, Yugi. There are nicer people out there more deserving of your friendship," Anzu said: "Now excuse me, I'm going to find another bathroom."</p><p>Yugi sighed: "Are you okay?"</p><p>"Huh? Yeah. I'm sorry I - misunderstood."</p><p>"It's okay, could have happened to anyone," Yugi smiled.</p><hr/><p>Yugi went to bed worried about Anzu. She was really in love with his Other Self, wasn't she? Yugi couldn't blame him really. The Pharaoh was so much cooler than he was in many ways and Yugi himself was deeply fond of the man, but Yugi worried how hurt she would be once it was time for them all to part ways. With a heavy heart he eventually fell asleep. Only to be woken again by a loud scream. It pierced the air and even as Yugi sat up and fully woke up, the scream was still ongoing. It was Kaiba's voice and he sounded as if his heart was being pulled out of him alive. Yugi heard footsteps passing his room: “<em>Nii-sama</em>!" he heard Mokuba cry. Another set of footsteps. And another. Both sounding like they belonged to grown men. Kaiba's bodyguards? Yugi got his puzzle and dashed out of the room as well. Something was clearly wrong. </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I know I couldn't possibly get this out by Mokuba's birthday, but I did not expect it to be this long. </p><p>I picked pizza as party food partly, because pizza is absurdly expensive in Japan and I don't think any normal person would order 20. </p><p>Regarding dueling: this takes place somewhere before the Memory World Arc, so Synchro Summoning certainly isn't a thing yet. So I altered the card rules slightly to cut out the existence of Tuner Monsters, but still have a somewhat believable way for Mokuba to summon 3 Blue Eyes. That one turn took me an hour to write, so I hope it was worth it. Feel free to tear it down still.</p><p>I based the fact that Mokuba borrows Kaiba's cards from Duel Links. In Duel Links Mokuba also uses Blue Eyes and seeing as there are only 3 in the world and they are all in Kaiba's deck... he borrows Kaiba's cards. </p><p>Also, I honestly can't tell if this is getting prideshippy or is it still just perfectly in the realm of canon. Might get a bit worse next chapter. </p><p>The next chapter will be the last.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Birthday present</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This one got so violent that I had to update the warnings. It wasn't my attention, but I realized it would be the only way to make the story believable.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kaiba could barely fit himself inside this small narrow damp passage, so going up the steep staircase in absolute pitch blackness really wasn't the easiest thing he had ever done. Whoever had carved out the stone stairs hadn't put a lot of effort in, each step was a different height from the last and Kaiba kept tripping every few steps. There were even times when he fell completely and found himself a good number of steps downward again. At this point his nice clothes probably had dirt all over it and it would take weeks to get this horrible stench out of his clothes, but he knew this was where they held Mokuba so nothing else really mattered. How had he let his little brother get kidnapped again? Every single time he swore it would be the last time anyone could get their hands on him and every time he was proven wrong. One would think that after a certain amount of times he would no longer feel the sheer panic threatening to consume him when his only living family member was taken from him, but somehow it just got worse and worse every time. Maybe that's why everyone kept trying to take his little brother. They knew it was the one sure way to get to him.</p><p>The climb seemed endless, but eventually Kaiba was up the stairs in a poorly lit dungeon. It reminded him of where Mokuba had been kept during Duelist Kingdom. He walked across a small opening and into a tiny cramped cell that housed a brown wooden table, eight strong looking guys and his little brother. <em>Shit, eight was too many. Why had he not brought back-up? Why did he never have back-up? Never mind then. He'd have to pay them what they had requested. He could get the money back later. The money hardly mattered anyways. He had plenty of it. </em></p><p>"Nii-sama! You came!" Mokuba cried happily, trying to reach him, but he was hit over the head with a back of a revolver.</p><p>"Mokuba!"</p><p>Either the man hadn't hit him that hard or Mokuba had an unusually hard head, but it didn't knock him out.</p><p>"I have the money you need! Leave him alone!" Kaiba ordered, slamming a suitcase down the brown table and flipping it open. The case was filled with rotten leaves.<em> What? Why was it filled with leaves? It had definitely been money before. What was going on?</em></p><p>"Do you think this is funny, Mr. Kaiba? Do you think we're not serious? Perhaps we should show you just how serious we are," one of the men spoke. He might have been their leader or just another henchman, either way he seemed to be the only one capable of speech.</p><p>The two men grabbed hold of Mokuba, forced him to sit down behind a small table and suddenly they had all kinds of gruesome looking torture devices with them.</p><p>"You don't need to prove anything. I'll just make the transaction from my phone to your account, right away," Kaiba said, getting his phone out. His hands were shaking slightly as he logged into his bank, but otherwise his tone was calm as ever. </p><p>"How many millions was it?" he asked nonchalantly, trying to regain control over the situation.</p><p>"Billions, Mr. Kaiba. Eight Billions."</p><p>"Doesn't matter," Seto said coolly and punched in the desired amount. </p><p>
  <em>Transaction failed.  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>What? Why? Was there some stupid limit the bank had set again?</em>
</p><p>He went to check his balance. </p><p>
  <em>00.00<strong>¥</strong></em>
</p><p>
  <em>What?</em>
</p><p>"Problem, Mister Kaiba?"</p><p>"No, I'll just - use a different account..."</p><p>"You know Mr. Kaiba. You're being far too relaxed about this. Your brother has a whole 10 fingers. He doesn't really need all ten, does he?"</p><p>"I could transfer you the money, if you would just shut up for a moment!" he spat, signing into another bank account to check his bank account balance there. </p><p>
  <em>00.00<strong>¥</strong></em>
</p><p>
  <em>How could this be? Who had emptied both of his accounts? He was sure there had been money there this morning. </em>
</p><p>"Mister Kaiba, you really are taking too long. Well, Mister Mokuba, which of your fingers do you like the least?" the man asked his little brother. </p><p>"<em>Nii-sama</em>!" </p><p>"I'm trying, Mokuba, but someone has emptied both of our main accounts!"</p><p>"How about this one?" the man asked and the next moment Kaiba heard a scream. It made him feel weak in the knees. This was it. No more Mister Nice Guy. Kidnapping Mokuba was one thing, it could even get you some temporary short-term results. Hurting Mokuba however, that just got you killed. Killed in a way that made you wish for a nice quick clean death. Kaiba reached for his cards. They were definitely his weapon of choice and when he couldn't duel his way to domination, he was just as good at using them as literal weapons. He threw one at the man, who seemed most distracted, but the card dissolved to dust mid-air. <em>What? What was going on?</em> The sudden movement did however get the man's attention. Great. He had lost his element of surprise. Well, he could fight in other ways too. In one shift movement Kaiba stepped forward, closed his suitcase and flung it at the nearest man in full-force, knocking him out. The others came at him, but he expected it. He elbowed the other guy coming at him from the opposite direction, head-butted the third. That, in hindsight, hadn't been the best ideas, it hurt him nearly as bad as it had the other guy. But his opponent did drop his gun, which Kaiba managed to pick up and shoot at another one of them.</p><p>The pain in his head was forgotten the next moment. He thought he actually felt it before he heard the gunshot. It didn't matter. Either way someone had managed to shoot him right in the kneecap. Kaiba screamed and fell to his knees, which probably made the whole thing even more painful. </p><p>"<em>Nii-sama</em>!"</p><p>Kaiba looked up to see Mokuba looking far more distressed about him than the fact that his clothes seemed to be almost entirely soaked in his own blood. Did that much blood really come from cutting off one finger? Would they be able to sew it back on? They'd have to be. Once they'd get out of here, he would find the best surgeon. </p><p>"Well, then, Mister Kaiba. Are we done playing?"</p><p>It was hard to look menacing when you were on the ground, but Kaiba did his best as he grabbed his phone again. He looked around. Even as he had managed to knock some of their opponents out they were still outnumbered. Maybe Mokuba could take one or two out, but he himself was completely useless now. It was no use. He just had to play along for now. Get them home alive. That was all that mattered: "Yes, let me just access one of my off-shore accounts." He had to have had money there surely. </p><p>
  <em>Account balance: 0,00€</em>
</p><p>
  <em>What?</em>
</p><p>No matter. He had another one. If he could just remember the password for this one.</p><p>
  <em>The password or user ID you have entered is invalid. 3 attempts remaining.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The password or user ID you have entered is invalid. 2 attempts remaining.</em>
</p><p>"Mr. Kaiba. I thought we explained this to you before. If you try to stall, we'll just cut another little piece off your brother."</p><p>"I'm working on it! You can wait for two minutes!"</p><p>
  <em>The password or user ID you have entered is invalid. 1 attempt remaining.</em>
</p><p>This one. It had to be this one. </p><p>
  <em>The password or user ID you have entered is invalid. For security reasons this account has been locked. If you wish to unlock your account please contact...</em>
</p><p>"We're really not very patient people, Mr. Kaiba."</p><p>"A moment," It was time to change approach. Kaiba dialed a number: “It's me. I need you to sell 8 billions worth of stock right now and transfer the profit to the account I provide."</p><p>An elderly woman's voice replied: "I'm sorry dear, who's this?"</p><p>Kaiba checked the caller ID. It <em>was</em> the right number: "Is this a joke?! I have no time for this!"</p><p>"No joke, dear, Is this Yokohama-san?"</p><p>"Yokohama-san?! Who's Yokohama-san? This is Seto Kaiba!"</p><p>"Seto Kaiba?"</p><p>Kaiba ended the call and dialed another number. </p><p>
  <em>We're sorry. The number you have dialed is not at service at this time. Please check the number or try your call again.</em>
</p><p>"Tch," How was this happening? He picked another number, while the men in the room were picking another finger to chop off Mokuba. They locked eyes and Kaiba felt so sick and guilty he thought he might actually get sick. He didn't deserve Mokuba. He didn't deserve all his never-ending love and endless trust. He was failing him now. He would save him of course, but this was already a failure. Kaiba could see Mokuba's efforts at holding back a scream, but it was useless. He screamed nonetheless. </p><p>
  <em>We're sorry. The number you have dialed is not -</em>
</p><p>Another number. </p><p>
  <em>We're sorry. The number you have - </em>
</p><p>Another number. </p><p>
  <em>We're sorry - </em>
</p><p>He was out of numbers. What else could he do? He had no money, all of his accounts seemed to be either empty or he could not access them. He couldn't reach any of his employees. He couldn't fight. What else could he do?</p><p>Kaiba reached for his cards: “I'll give you all three of my Blue Eyes White Dragons."</p><p>"<em>Cards</em>?" The man sneered. </p><p>"They're not just cards. They're worth far more than the money you're asking. Plus I could always send you the money once I get home."</p><p>"As if you would."</p><p>They were right. He wouldn't. </p><p>"We're not really interested in cards, Mr. Kaiba." The leader spoke. </p><p>"God, then you really are idiots! My brother's Blue Eyes is worth more than your lousy billions. It's priceless!" For a boy who had just had two of his fingers cut off Mokuba sure had a lot of sass left. Kaiba did not give the boy enough credit. </p><p>"Fine. Let's see those cards then."</p><p>Kaiba smiled. They would get out of this alive still. He reached for his cards, but as he pulled his deck out he found they were all cheap worthless cards, no, not just <em>any</em> cheap worthless cards, these were the cards Mokuba had given him when they were children. This was that deck. Even the Blue Eyes he had drawn was here. And then Kaiba watched as as all of the cards turned to dust right before his eyes, leaving just the drawing. The man before him picked it up. Kaiba thought he looked a lot more like Gozaburo all of a sudden: “What's this then? Some kind of a <em>joke</em>? We don't take kindly to jokes."</p><p>Kaiba had no moves left to play. He had lost. Except losing was unacceptable. He couldn't lose when what was at stake was his and his brother lives. He prayed that there would be enough adrenaline in his body left to temporarily numb the pain and got himself up, lunging for Mokuba. He fell down again the next moment. </p><p>"<em>Nii-sama</em>!"</p><p>"I'm sorry, Mokuba."</p><p>"What do you think you're doing, Mr. Kaiba?" one of the guys asked and punched him. It no longer mattered to Kaiba at all: “I don't have the money," he said, calmly. </p><p>"What?"</p><p>"I don't have the money. I can't pay you," he repeated firmly. </p><p>"Are you serious!?" the man sounded angry, but also... surprised?</p><p>"Yes. I have no money to pay you. All my account are dried up."</p><p>The man laughed: “Then we'll just kill you."</p><p>"Kill me." It was almost a challenge. </p><p>"<strong><em>Nii-sama</em></strong>!" The way Mokuba sounded, Kaiba thought, sounded like it was a lot less painful having your fingers cut off than it was seeing your brother get killed. Maybe it was. Kaiba looked over to his little brother. He looked horrified. </p><p>"I'm sorry, Mokuba. Go. Run." As long as Mokuba made it out alive it was okay. It would still be a somewhat acceptable outcome. </p><p>Mokuba didn't move. The men moved and took hold of him again: “Oh he's not going anywhere."</p><p>"He's just a child. He has nothing to do with this! Let him go!" </p><p>"He's not just a child. He's the Vice President of -" </p><p>"That's just a title I gave him! It's meaningless. It has no power," Kaiba lied. He sounded desperate now. He had lost, he knew. Then again, he had lost some time ago. Now it was only a matter of how badly he lost: "He's just a child! Let him go. You have no use for him anymore."</p><p>"You're right. We do have no use for him anymore," the man agreed, pressed a gun to Mokuba's temple and said: “Which is why I'm going to show mercy and kill him quickly," he pressed the trigger. Kaiba's blue eyes were locked with his younger brother's big shocked dark purple ones. He could not look away. There was a moment of silence. A gunshot. A small cynical part of Kaiba's brain told him that if Mokuba would really be shot in the head with a revolver, it wouldn't be like this. His brains and insides wouldn't be splashing everywhere as if a grenade had gone off. A bigger, more prominent part of his brain was focused on the feeling of his younger brother's hot blood dripping down his face. Kaiba screamed. He screamed and screamed and screamed. There was nothing, but darkness. He couldn't see the men or Mokuba anymore, but he carried on screaming: “<em>Kill me! Kill me, kill me, kill me! Why wouldn't you just <strong>kill me?</strong>!"</em> </p><p>"<em>Nii-sama</em>!" There was a blinding light and Kaiba had to close his eyes against it. </p><p>"Nii-sama, are you awake?!"</p><p>Kaiba opened his eyes again to see his little brother standing in the dim light of his bedroom lamp: “Mokuba..."</p><p>"Are you fully awake now? It's okay. No one is trying to kill us," he said and climbed into Kaiba's bed. Kaiba instantly wrapped his arms around his younger brother so tight the poor boy could barely breathe. The younger boy had no complaints though. He buried his hand into Seto's brunette hair and tried to calm his older brother who was still shaking all over: “ It's okay, big bro. It's okay. It was all just a dream. We're okay..."</p><p>Seto could hear footsteps in the hallway: “Seto-sama!" How was it that his younger brother made it here way before his bodyguards? What if there was an actual emergency?</p><p>"<em>Leave</em>." Kaiba managed, but tightened his hold on Mobuba, in case he for some reason thought this order might apply to him.</p><p>Another set of footsteps. "<em>Kaiba</em>!" That was... his rival's voice? Oh. Right. He had those idiots over. He really couldn't deal with this right now. </p><p>The Pharaoh stepped inside and stood in front of their bed, watching the scene before him, confused. Kaiba glanced over and noticed he was carrying his cards. Ah. So he thought this would be some situation he could duel his way out of. Kaiba thought about letting go of Mokuba, but found he couldn't, he was still shaking all over and frankly Mokuba's presence was the only thing that kept him from crying. </p><p>"What happened?" he heard the deep baritone of the Pharaoh ask. </p><p>"Nothing," Mokuba replied. </p><p>"Kaiba just begged to be murdered. Something must have had happened." </p><p>Mokuba sounded annoyed now: “Nii-sama had a nightmare. That's all." </p><p>"Oh." Finding that this wasn't a situation that required dueling his opponents, The Pharaoh was clearly out of his depth. He stood there awkwardly for a moment, but didn't leave either. Instead he just sat on the edge of the bed. Another set of footsteps approached. This time it was Anzu.</p><p>"What happened?"</p><p>"Kaiba had a nightmare," his rival supplied. </p><p>"Oh... must have been some nightmare. He sounded like he was skinned alive."</p><p>Kaiba winced and Mokuba hugged him tighter once more: “Were you?" he asked quietly. </p><p>"No, but now that Masaki has so kindly provided me with that mental image, I'm sure that's food for thought the next time I go to sleep."</p><p>"Sorry," Anzu said and entered the room.</p><p>"Gee, must you all come here now?"</p><p>"You were the one who screamed like a maniac and woke us all!" </p><p>"Not like I can control it," Kaiba spat back. </p><p>He looked over to the Pharaoh, who seemed to be having a unheard conversation with his other self now, making faces at empty space: “It's really annoying, when you do that," Kaiba cut. He was feeling much too vulnerable for his own liking. </p><p>The Pharaoh smiled a little sheepishly. Frankly Kaiba had never seen him smile like that. He looked more like Yugi now: "Aibou was just saying... well, doesn't matter. We all have nightmares, Kaiba."</p><p>Kaiba rolled his eyes, ran one hand through Mokuba's hair and said: "It's okay. You can let go. I'm all right."</p><p>"Shall I go make tea?" Mokuba offered and Kaiba hummed in agreement. </p><p>"Tea?" Anzu repeated, mostly to herself, but it caught Mokuba's attention too: “Yeah. Do you want some? What about you, Yugi?"</p><p>The Pharaoh smiled: “Sure. Tea sounds nice."</p><p>"What about you them, Anzu?"</p><p>Anzu didn't notice Mokuba asking. All she heard was their earlier conversation, replayed in her head.</p><p>
  <em>"Nii-sama and I like to drink a bit of tea at night together."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"At night?" </em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Yeah. Usually. Sometimes. It's kind of a thing we do."</em>
</p><p>Mokuba had looked a bit embarrassed and uncomfortable and Kaiba had too. At the time Anzu had thought it was, because Kaiba was embarrassed to show he had a softer side that liked to drink tea with his little brother, but - was this what it was really like? How often did poor Mokuba have to wake to the agonized screams of his older brother begging for his life to be ended? Anzu shivered. Poor Mokuba. Poor Kaiba. She had been too mean to him earlier. </p><p>"Hey, Anzu! Do you want tea or not?"</p><p>She jumped out of her reverie: “Huh? Yeah. Sure. Is it okay if I go make it? You can stay with Kaiba then."</p><p>Kaiba rolled his eyes: "I told you, I'm <em>fine</em>. "</p><p>Anzu left regardless, leaving an awkward silence in her place. For a while, no one knew what to say. </p><p>"Do you and Yugi have same dreams?" Mokuba asked eventually. </p><p>"Huh?"</p><p>"I mean - do the two of you share dreams?" Mokuba clarified. They were all still clearly thinking about nightmares, so he might as well ask. </p><p>"Yeah," the Pharaoh replied: "I sometimes really wish we didn't. But I guess then again, he has nightmares of his own too."</p><p>"Must really suck when it comes to privacy," Kaiba commented. He usually never told anyone his dreams. Mokuba asked sometimes, but he tried to get out of telling if he could.</p><p>"It's okay. It brings you closer together. Plus we are very close anyway, so it doesn't matter."</p><p>Mokuba looked at his brother in a kind of hopeful way and Kaiba could easily read his mind: "I'm not telling you, Mokuba."</p><p>Mokuba pouted: "Not even once they leave?"</p><p>"No."</p><p>"But Nii-sama, I think maybe - "</p><p>"<em>Leave it, Mokuba</em>," Kaiba said sharply and Mokuba did.</p><p>He still managed to look like a kicked puppy, so the Pharaoh tried to amend things: "Kaiba won't tell you, because he loves you. I think - I would be the same if I could with Aibou, but you can't build up such conscious walls when you're dreaming and sharing a body. Kaiba doesn't want you to know all the gruesome ways you're being murdered in his dreams. It might scare you and you might start having similar kinds of dreams yourself," he explained calmly: "I do believe that we all have different experiences on this Earth and no one can ever truly know how someone else feels, because even in similar situations, different people might feel differently, but - I think I understand this a bit. Ever since I lost Aibou's soul, I have nightmares of that happening again and - not just that. I put all of my friends in danger all the time and I'm aware of it. They could have died because of me so many times and - oftentimes I see these possibilities."</p><p>"It's not your fault," Kaiba's voice was razor sharp: “They chose to come along and stand by your side. They know the risks and must deem them worth the reward, whatever that is. And even if they don't always get to choose what happens, neither do you. We don't get to make all the choices all the time, but there <em>is</em> always a choice to be made and as long as you make the correct choice then, it's fine. You always save them. You don't fail," he glanced over to Mokuba: “Neither do I."</p><p>"But you fear you might..."</p><p>"i know I won't. It's not an option. I <em>can't</em> lose," Kaiba insisted, but he had to admit the Pharaoh was pretty damn sharp. </p><p>An&lt;u brought tea. Kaiba's hands were still shaking as he accepted a cup, everyone noticed, but no one pointed it out. Kaiba hummed: “Apricot... you have a sense of humor, Anzu."*</p><p>"Of course I do!" she sighed: “Kaiba-kun, about earl - "</p><p>"<em>Don't," </em>Kaiba cut him off "Really, don't. I don't need your insincere apologizes -"</p><p>"They're not insincere!" Anzu argued.</p><p>"You feel sorry for me. Don't. It insults me more than the fact that you slapped me earlier."</p><p>Anzu nodded: "I have nightmares too. I don't know if mine are as bad, but - God, the things we've been through. Jounouchi and Mai nearly dying... that time we all nearly drowned... it all stays to haunt you..."</p><p>"Great. We've established we're all mentally screwed up. Now how does that help us?" Kaiba asked and for a while no one dared to say anything more. They all just drank tea.</p><p>Mokuba eventually spoke up: "Yugi, what do you do after you've had a nightmare? How do you go back to sleep?" Mokuba couldn't be sure, but it seemed that his brother and Yugi had nightmares of similar levels of severity and maybe something that the Pharaoh did, could help his brother, but Kaiba was far too proud to ask even if he had thought of it.</p><p>The Pharaoh thought about it: "I talk to my partner, usually. Not necessarily about the dream, just... anything. Anything else really," Kaiba glanced over to Mokuba and he could practically see him taking mental notes. </p><p>"Sometimes I look at my cards. It helps me feel grounded. I don't try to re-build my deck or anything, I just - look at them. Sometimes I read the card descriptions, sometimes I just... hold them."</p><p>Kaiba hated to admit he did the exact same thing, however Mokuba seemed to have no qualms about admitting anything: “Nii-sama does that too."</p><p>"I do," Kaiba admitted. No reason to hide it now. He saw his rival look around and took a guess: "Topmost drawer. The key is under the flowerpot."</p><p>The Pharaoh opened the drawer. It was completely empty. Aside from a couple of lone books."</p><p>"Fake bottom."</p><p>"Of course there is. You can't do anything simple."</p><p>"They're my most valuable possessions," Kaiba argued. He got up, removed the fake bottom and took his cards. </p><p>"True enough," his rival agreed as he reached his hand out for Seto's cards, meanwhile his other hand found his own deck: “Trade? Not for real of course."</p><p>"Of course," Kaiba agreed and took Yugi's deck, before throwing himself back to the bed. The other man followed his example and laid down too, if Kaiba had laid closer to the edge of the bed, the spiky hair would have ended up on his stomach, but as they were now, the Pharaoh's hair just brushed against his side slightly. It didn't bother him. He slowly flipped through the deck in his hand as Mokuba watched over his shoulder. He glanced over to the other man, flipping through his cards in a similar manner. He seemed to handle them with great care and delicacy. </p><p><em>Our hearts in each other's hands, huh? </em>Kaiba thought and shook his head at the ridiculous thought. </p><p>Meanwhile Mokuba was busy watching the two, as well as Yugi's cards in his big brother's hands. The two were so alike. If his brother were just a little more open he was sure they could be great friends. He wished they would be. He wished Seto would have someone in this world other than himself, but he knew better to push it. You couldn't force these kinds of things. Maybe if they had a bit more casual downtime between themselves Seto would begin to see things in a different light. Mokuba sighed and sunk against his brother's side. At least Seto would always have him. </p><p>"What's wrong?" Seto asked. </p><p>"Nothing," Mokuba replied. Kaiba had just found Dark Magician in Yugi's deck. It was probably all in Kaiba's head, but it felt like the spellcaster was looking at him disapprovingly. He had a strong urge to flip the card around, but instead he just turned to the next one. The Dark Magician Girl looked much friendlier: "Do you put your cards in a certain order within your deck when you're in-between duels?" Kaiba asked.</p><p>"Yeah. So do you."</p><p>"Yeah."</p><p>Mokuba smiled. So much in common. Maybe one day Seto would see this. Maybe he should ask Yugi to push for it a little harder. Mokuba fell asleep on that thought. </p><hr/><p>When Kaiba woke several hours later Mokuba had wrapped himself around him so completely, that there was no way Kaiba could have gotten up even if he wanted to. He didn't mind his little brother turning into a tiny octopus whenever he crawled into his bed, but he did carefully re-arrange him a bit, so there was less pressure against his stab wound. He looked around and found that Yugi was in much the same predicament he was in with Anzu Masaki having wrapped herself around the boy. </p><p>"Not the way I imagined my morning to start," Kaiba muttered. </p><p>"Mmm?" Yugi hummed. </p><p>"With three other people in my bed."</p><p>Yugi started to laugh: "Kaiba-kun, you made a joke."</p><p>Kaiba huffed: "Don't sound like that. I'm not incapable of making jokes. I just choose not to."</p><p>"Why not?"</p><p>Kaiba shrugged: "I didn't get where I am by making jokes."</p><p>"Are you happy where you are?"</p><p>Kaiba made a noise that sounded a bit like he didn't understand what the question was. </p><p>"Are you happy, Kaiba-kun? With your life?"</p><p>Kaiba was quiet for a moment: "You've been talking to Mokuba, haven't you?" </p><p>"Well, he did spend several nights at my place."</p><p>Kaiba sighed and pinched the top of his nose: "Yeah, that sounds like something he'd be worried about..."</p><p>"Is he right to be worried?"</p><p>"No, but I can't bring myself to explain it to him."</p><p>Now it was Yugi's turn to look confused: "Why not? I'm sure he'd only be happy to know you are happy."</p><p>"I think - if I told him he wouldn't believe me," Kaiba admitted as he looked down at the small boy in his arms, gently running his thin fingers through the mess of his thick almost black hair.</p><p>"Oh?"</p><p>"Mokuba was - very young when our parents died. I'm honestly not sure how much he remembers. We don't - <em>I </em>don't talk about it and he respects the fact that I don't want to, but - it was very hard when they died."</p><p>Yugi didn't know what to say to that. He knew Kaiba-kun would just scoff if he offered his sympathies, besides, it was fairly obvious that losing both parents at such a young age was horrible. He suspected Kaiba was going somewhere with this, so he just listened. He knew this wasn't an easy topic. He even wondered if Kaiba had told anyone what he was currently telling him. </p><p>"I think when you're very very young, you see things differently. I mean, I was hardly an adult myself, but Mokuba was still in that age where - there's I guess a certain time in your childhood that seems happy looking back even if it was terrible. If you were to be put in that situation when you're older you'd complain and perhaps fall depressed, but as a child you have games and things and - that's all you need. That isn't always the case, if you go too far in the dark extreme, not even the happiest child could find their life entirely happy. Mokuba is the most absurdly positive person I have met and we both agree life with Gozaburo was hell. But when we lived in that orphanage, we very clearly saw things differently. He remembers it as a somewhat happy time. I tried to make it a happy time for him. I stood up for him when he was bullied and I spent all my time with him and put on a smile and pretended so desperately that we were okay. Our parents were dead and we had been at several relatives places, none of whom really wanted us and at some point I realized no one would ever want us. But I told him it would be okay and smiled and told him with great confidence that one day I would build theme parks and we would have our own houses and planes and all the chocolate and nice food we could eat and nice clothes and - <em>everything</em>. I told him all of it like it was a fact, when in reality it was a dream. I had no plan. I tried to conceive one, but in reality I only ever started to form one when Gozaburo came and even then I just thought of things as I went along. I had no way knowing the old geezer would even agree to my terms, I just went to him with the same kind of confidence I always told Mokuba with that we were going to have a good life. Mokuba is my little brother and he knows me better than anyone so I thought - I was certain that he knew I was faking it. I thought he knew that every smile I put on was forced for the sake of his happiness. I can't say we never had any fun at all, but most of the time I was definitely overdoing the smiling. For his sake. I always thought he knew, but when we got older and he started to talk about how I never smile anymore I realized he really had thought I was happy then. Living in a poor orphanage on crap food with children who bullied us and with all of our living relatives having abandoned us," Kaiba let out a bitter laugh: “Can you imagine anyone being happy like that? It wouldn't fit into my head, but I realized that was what he thought. And that he also thought I was miserable now when I am probably as happy as I've ever been. I've just stopped feeling the need to fake it all the time."</p><p>Yugi was quiet for a moment, trying to process what he had been told. He was kind of shocked that Kaiba would tell him these kinds of deeply personal things, but also happy. He wanted them to be friends and this seemed like a sort of thing that would make them closer to each other: “I still think you might want to tell him. It would take a load off him."</p><p>"It would also ruin this image he has of his childhood having been happy. I mean, his childhood actually was happy, before everyone died, but I'm not sure how much he remembers of that. And I think it might just make him worry about whether all my smiles are insincere. I mean, I do actually smile sometimes still when I feel like it, despite him claiming otherwise.  "</p><p>"I think it's better to have some memories ruined than go his whole life worrying." </p><p>Kaiba thought about it: “You're probably right, actually."</p><p>"And..." Yugi fidgeted with his Millennium Puzzle.</p><p>"<em>And</em>?" Kaiba prompted. </p><p>"I think, while you're at it, maybe tell him some things about your parents? I think he might be happy to know."</p><p>Kaiba let out a humourless laugh: “If Mokuba's therapist couldn't get me to talk about that with him, neither can you."</p><p>"Mokuba has a therapist?"</p><p>"I had him see one briefly while we lived in America. We had been through a lot and they are more qualified and better with this type of thing over there than here. If you have the money for it, of course. Which I did,"</p><p>"Do you have one as well?"</p><p>"Do you see me talking to someone about my feelings?"</p><p>"Isn't that... sort of what we're doing right now?"</p><p>Kaiba scoffed: "I suppose. Still. Not a thing I'd do regularly." He looked over to Yugi and Anzu wrapped up all around him. Yugi looked too and blushed: “It's just - she likes the Other Me, you know?"</p><p>"But you like <em>her."</em> </p><p>Yugi blushed some more, he would have denied it, but considering Kaiba had just opened up to him like that, he felt he couldn't: “Yeah, but... I get it. The Other Me is much cooler."</p><p>"You have the same body. You look pretty much the same."</p><p>"Our body looks different depending on whose in control and besides, Anzu isn't that shallow."</p><p>"I rather think she is. All she could look at in the bathroom were his muscles and - for all the preaching you guys do about friendship, it doesn't really seem like she's a very good friend. Going after the other man in your body knowing how you feel."</p><p>"I support them. I want them both to be happy."</p><p>"Does your other self like her?"</p><p>"I think so." </p><p>"You think? You haven't <em>asked? </em>You guys share a body, one would think you have talked about this. Or you know, that it would be obvious with the body sharing..." </p><p>Yugi blushed even harder: “Kaiba-kun!" </p><p>Kaiba smirked: “And how would it even work? If they wanted to be in a relationship?"</p><p>Yugi sighed: “I don't know. I am kind of worried about it too. I mean once the Pharaoh must leave..."</p><p>"Why <em>must</em> he?"</p><p>It took Yugi a while to answer. He opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to think of a way to explain this. </p><p>"Does he <em>want</em> to leave? I mean with the technological advancements I have created I think modern Japan is pretty great. Maybe he'd like to live here."</p><p>"He doesn't belong in our world. We both know there will be a time when we must part. I dread it, but one day, I think it just has to happen..."</p><p>"People are only slaves to their fate when they choose to be. If I was where I belonged I'd still be in an orphanage."</p><p>Yugi looked up at him: “You really believe that, don't you? That our whole lives are our own making?"</p><p>"Yes. There are things that can't be changed, but people view far too many things as inevitable when in fact very few are."</p><p>Yugi smiled, that was actually kind of uplifting to hear: "What do you think I should do with Anzu and The Pharaoh then? Encourage them?"</p><p>"I'm not the person to ask. I don't do friendships and I do relationships even less, but if I were to say, I'd say start with finding out if your other self actually likes her."</p><p>Yugi nodded: "Why <em>don't</em> you do friendships, Kaiba? I'd like us to be friends."</p><p>"They're pointless. All your friends will leave you sooner or later. Why bother? You said it yourself that you're certain the Pharaoh will."</p><p>"That's not true!" Yugi argued fiercely: “Jounouchi and Honda and Anzu and I will always stay friends!"</p><p>"Unlikely. Circumstance is what has brought you together. You're friends because you go to the same school, once that is gone, so will go the rest of your friendship. You have nothing real in common. Besides maybe liking Duel Monsters."</p><p>Yugi looked like he was about to cry: "That's cruel. And untrue. The things we have been through... it creates a bond nothing will break."</p><p>"You share some emotional trauma. Things you probably don't want to think about anymore as years go by, things you'll want to forget."</p><p>Yugi sighed. He looked really deeply shaken and distressed by Kaiba's way of thinking, but he still argued against it: “I disagree. By that logic - do you think Mokuba will one day just leave you as well?</p><p>"We're brothers. Our bond's different. Although there are times when I wonder if one day he'll wake up, more adult and realize just like everyone else that I'm not that great."</p><p>Yugi smiled: “I don't think he will. Besides, you can be pretty great."</p><p>"I just almost made you cry."</p><p>"It's just how you feel. Can't be helped. Well, maybe in time you'll see I was right. Either way, when I said that, I meant more like Mokuba moving away to get married."</p><p>"Oh," It was clear from Kaiba's expression he had never even considered that: “Well... if he wanted to, he could of course. I wouldn't keep him and if he did, I suppose his family would be very unlikely to like me, so I suppose we might grow apart in that scenario," the thought was terrifying. Seto had truly never considered it, but now as he saw himself growing old running a company alone while Mokuba was somewhere else raising 5 children with a beautiful wife, it gave him chills. He himself would never get married. That was out of the question. He simply didn't want to. So, he really would just end up all alone. </p><p>"God, you're so depressing!" Mokuba complained loudly: “Okay, first off all. Nii-sama, I would never marry anyone who didn't like you. Ever. And secondly, even if I did ever get married, I think I'd just stay here in the mansion. I mean there's plenty of rooms."</p><p>"You want a partner who likes me? Get ready for a life of loneliness, kiddo. I have no doubt you could find someone, but them liking me is not very likely at all."</p><p>"Well, then I'll just stay with you!" Mokuba said happily: “I don't have my heart set on marriage."</p><p>Kaiba smiled a little at that: "Well, you have time to think about it," Mokuba beamed and gave his brother a big hug: “How long have you been awake anyway?"</p><p>"Since you started talking about our parents."</p><p>"You sneaky bastard," Kaiba said affectionately. </p><p>"I wanted to know, I knew if I'd let you know I was awake you'd simply shut up. And Yugi is right by the way, I do like knowing. "</p><p>"I see," Kaiba said. He felt oddly relived to know Mokuba knew. </p><p>"Shall we have breakfast now?" Mokuba asked. </p><p>"Yes. I forgot about the chocolate parfaits last night. They should be perfectly set now."</p><p>Mokuba's cheers were so loud they woke Anzu. </p><hr/><p>Kaiba found himself making breakfast once more, despite having kitchen staff, it not being Mokuba's birthday and swearing the day before that he wouldn't again. Well, it wasn't that bad, all he really had to do was get out the parfaits and make coffee for everyone and hot cocoa for Mokuba. The boy refused to yield to the concept of there being such a thing as too much chocolate in one course. </p><p>He looked up just as Yugi walked back into the room and stared. The man's hair looked... a ridiculous mess. The longer he stared at it the funnier it got.</p><p>"What? You don't actually think my hair holds in a perfect star all the time?"</p><p>"I've... never really considered it."</p><p>"Well, you don't have any of the hair products I use so I'll just have to style it in a bun or something. Hey, it's not that funny."</p><p>It was too late, Kaiba seemed to have cracked and was actually laughing. He still sounded a bit manic, but Yugi was starting to suspect that was just the way he laughed. He was about to scold Kaiba when he saw Mokuba's face and he realized, that without even really trying, he had managed to give Mokuba the gift he had wanted for his brother. </p><p>
  <em>The End</em>
</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you! Thank you so much for reading the whole thing. Thanks to Yumeri and everyone else who commented while they were reading. It really motivated me to keep going.  Let me know what you thought in the comments!</p><p>If you'd like to read more, I have another really long fan fiction idea in my head that I think I'm going to have to write or else it won't let me be. That one will have a lot more of Atem and Kaiba interacting and I think it might even turn into proper prideshipping, but it will still have a nice strong emphasis on Kaiba brothers as well.</p><p>* Did you get the joke?</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading this far! Please feel free to let me know in the comments what you liked and what you thought I got all wrong... :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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